[sane-devel] Sane API

[Olaf Meeuwissen]

Hi Johannes,

Johannes Meixner writes:

> Hello,
>
> On 2020-10-13 11:02, Olaf Meeuwissen wrote:
>>
>> Following semantic versioning, we are at liberty to (completely) break
>> the API's backward compatibility although I realize that the draft has
>> different ideas about that.  Seeing how many years have passed since it
>> was drafted, I guess a more radical approach _might_ be in order.
>
> I don't know any details here so I could totally misunderstand things
> but "break ... backward compatibility" looks a bit scaring to me
> so I like to ask if I understand things at least basically right:
>
> Would it mean that existing frontends could no longer work
> because of "broken backward compatibility"?

Assuming for simplicity's sake that the backward compatibility breaking
version is SANE 2 and what we use now is SANE 1, breaking backward
compatibility means that

 - SANE 1 frontends will continue to work with SANE 1 backends
 - SANE 1 frontends will not work with SANE 2 backends
 - SANE 2 frontends will work with SANE 2 backends
 - SANE 2 frontends will not work with SANE 1 backends

> Could it mean that new frontends (for the new API) would
> no longer work with old backends that implement the old API?

So, yes.

Of course, if someone bothers to write a SANE 2 backend that uses one,
some or even all of the SANE 1 backends, SANE 2 frontends can use that
backend to access devices that are only supported by a SANE 1 backend.

Hope this helps,
--
Olaf Meeuwissen, LPIC-2            FSF Associate Member since 2004-01-27
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