[sane-devel] SANE Help & Contact

ken gebser at mousecar.com
Mon Jul 22 18:58:40 BST 2019


On 7/22/19 5:31 AM, Mcgrath, Michael D wrote:
> If a developer wanted to entertain creating these scan drivers for the products mentioned, does anyone have a rough estimate or ballpark on what the bid would be? Or is this just something not worth pursuing? I ask because this customer is a large enterprise account. 

Cost of development will depend to a huge degree on the contracted
developer's permitted access to relevant information.  For instance, if
the developer is given no access at all to the "inner workings" of the
hardware and firmware and existing relevant software, and so must at
every turn guess and reverse-engineer the code, his efforts, and so then
too the costs of development, will be considerable.  At the other
extreme end of the possible range of developer access would be complete
access, access to all code and documentation on hardware, firmware, and
existing drivers and applications already written for other OSs
(typically for Windows and Macs).  With such complete access, the
developer's required time and effort is reduced considerably, and so
then too naturally the cost.  With this degree of access, the quality of
code and documentation will also play a role in cost.  (Of course with
any access to proprietary information a non-disclosure agreement would
be expected and other, less formalistic indications of trustworthiness
are desired.)  To derive even a very rough estimate of development,
these factors should be discussed.

As a longtime and dedicated Linux user, I, and I'm sure others, welcome
the news that Xerox is interested in providing Linux functionality in
its products.  We hope that Linux support won't be restricted to just
that one large enterprise account, but will be made available to all
Xerox customers. 




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