[sane-devel] SANE2 standard completion

[Oliver Rauch]

I can not believe it.

There is someone who says I will start working on SANE2 and you have
nothing better to do than to tell him it is better not to do it.

This is called progress. Really good.


Best regards
Oliver

Am Freitag, den 28.03.2008, 08:52 +0100 schrieb Rene Rebe:
> Have you counted thru how many developers are willing to rewrite
> their code (backends, frontends, etc.) for this arbitrarily defined SANE
> 2 "thing" ?
> 
> My votes still are: preferably compatibly change SANE 1 or adopt
> TWAIN for Linux.
> 
> On 27.03.2008, at 18:22, stef wrote:
> 
> > 	Hello,
> >
> > 	before any work can start on SANE 2, the current proposal has to be  
> > completed.
> >
> > 	The major change is the image data format. SANE 2 will be able to  
> > handle new formats easily (which matches the current needs,  
> > especially regarding ir
> > channel). There will be 2 major image format, one pixel oriented and  
> > the other will give images as a mime attachment. There is also  
> > standard part for button handling.
> >
> > 	Here is a summary of the differences between SANE 1 and SANE 2  
> > proposal standards:
> >
> > structures changes:
> > 	- the SANE_Device struct has more fields, giving contact  
> > information about the devices in case of bug, and the ability to  
> > send device capability flags
> > 	- the SANE_Parameters changes to suit the image format improvement.  
> > It also gives new informations such as a proposed filename and X/Y  
> > dpi.
> > 	
> > options changes:
> > 	- capability hidden and allways settable added
> > 	- more commonly used options are now part of the standard
> >
> > SANE operations changes:
> > 	- sane_open has a SANE_Device ** parameter
> > 	- scanner's button handling
> >
> > newtwork operation:
> > 	The Network Protocol chapter seems to lag behind the SANE 1  
> > chapter, and the SANE_NET_OPEN call needs to be updated to reflect  
> > sane_open evolution.
> >
> > 		The current proposal is in good shape, and the change regarding  
> > image format seems to suit the current need for new formats.  
> > Converting current backends
> > to SANE2 doesn't seem that difficult.
> >
> > 	But before starting, there are some things I'd like to see in the  
> > new standard:
> > 	- the current code flow is
> > 	sane_init
> > 		sane_open
> > 			sane_start
> > 				sane_read
> > 			sane_cancel
> > 		sane_close
> > 	sane_exit
> > 	
> > 		rather than calling sane_cancel at the end of scan, I'd like to  
> > have a sane_end function. Leaving the use of sane_cancel for  
> > canceling the scan like it allready does. This new function would do  
> > about the same, but code flow would be cleaner and easier to  
> > understand:
> > 	sane_init
> > 		sane_open
> > 			sane_start
> > 				sane_read
> > 			sane_end
> > 		sane_close
> > 	sane_exit
> > 	
> > 	- the proposed button handling would surely be better if we create  
> > sane_lock_buttons(), sane_update_buttons() and sane_unlock()  
> > buttons, instead
> > of doing this with control options.
> > 	
> > 	- we should also add something about panels. Would some control  
> > options be enough,  or do we also need some lock/update/unlock  
> > behavior ?
> > 	
> > 	- there are some issues about backends configuration. In order to  
> > be detected, some backends need their  configuration files tweaked.  
> > I think that
> > having well-known configuration options would improve  the situation  
> > and would
> > also let us have a common way of accessing configuration parameters  
> > across
> > backends.
> > 	
> > 	- do we want to improve warmup handling ? Currently there is no  
> > feedback when warming-up is going on, which is sometime confusing,  
> > we can have the feeling that nothing is happening. Do we want a  
> > sane_warm_up() or a
> > SANE_STATUS_WARMING_UP would be enough ?
> > 	
> > 	There are other points that I feel they could be improved, but  
> > could be done as we develop SANE2:
> > 	- we need a sane type for scanner buttons. Either we rename the  
> > SANE_TYPE_BUTTON to SANE_TYPE_SOFT_BUTTON and use SANE_TYPE_BUTTON for
> > physical buttons, or we create a SANE_TYPE_HARD_BUTTON. So that a  
> > frontend can easily detect hardware buttons. There should be a list  
> > of well-known buttons
> > description to use when  possible.
> > 	- a SANE_TYPE_PANEL would be handy
> > 	- since there are well-know options there should be well-known  
> > groups, and the SANE_CAP of these options should also be given.
> > 	- a SANE_STATUS_LOCKED could be added to handle the case where the  
> > hardware lock of a scanner has been left.
> > 	
> > Regards,
> > 	Stef
> > 	
> > 		
> >
> > -- 
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> 
> -- 
>   René Rebe - ExactCODE GmbH - Europe, Germany, Berlin
>   http://exactcode.de | http://t2-project.org | http://rene.rebe.name
> 
>