[sane-devel] The future of the SANE-Standard

[m. allan noah]

On Dec 21, 2007 9:50 AM, Alessandro Zummo <azummo-lists at towertech.it> wrote:
> On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:47:13 -0500
> "m. allan noah" <kitno455 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Dec 21
> > >  I do not like changing every backend. but if we can change little
> > >  in dll/"real" 1.1 backends that would be fine.
> > >
> >
> > if the dll backend had no mechanism to determine existence of the call
> > beforehand, i assume it would segfault. besides, this assumes that all
> > callers will link against the dll backend exclusively- every backend
> > exports the same interface, so that frontends can link against them
> > directly. i would not want to break that.
>
>  mm think I had missed this.
>
> > so- if we want to protect front-ends from the updated backends- the
> > only mechanism we have is a well-known option. instead of a boolean,
> > how about a string list- then a backend can report what versions of
> > the standard it supports, and the frontend or user can chose.
>
>  I guess that would work! :)
>

actually- this idea is growing on me. it prevents the need to fork
sane and do a separate 1.1 branch- we can require that the new frame
types be protected by '--standard=1.1', and that well-known option can
have a warning, and front-ends that dont support certain minor
versions of the standard can hide them, and front-ends that do can
enable them by default. no bump in the SONAME keeps external backends
happy.

there must be some downsides, however- opinions?

allan

-- 
"The truth is an offense, but not a sin"