# Re: Starting a discussion about SANE and TWAIN...

Henry Miller (hank@black-hole.com)
Sat, 14 Aug 1999 01:00:21 -0500 (CDT)

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On Fri, 13 Aug 1999, Andreas Beck wrote:

> > Don't forget that linux runs on more then intel x86 hardware.
>
> Sure. Once you have the source in SANE style, compiling for another platform
> is simple. The problem with getting source will be, that many manufacturers
> will be pretty reluctant to give it out.
>
> > and should not be ignored. Alpha (64 bits) and sparc (which is the other
> > endian if I remember right) present difficult problems if they are not
> > solved inheirantly in the design.
>
> Not really. Decently written software does not require much fuzzing around
> with endianness and data sizes.

Not all software is decently written. It isn't particularry hard to write
software that can run on any system regaurdless of byte order, but it
isn't hard to mess up either.

> > Let me interrupt here and suggest Java. Not nessicatly the programing
> > languge as Sun has defined it (though that has advantages), but something
> > with a simielar goal: a simple API/Programing language that can be used
> > to create a backend. This will run on all platforms (ideally without the
> > endian issues that plague Sane today).
>
> I actually do not think, that interpreted bytecode is the greatest thing
> since sliced bread. O.K. - we are talking about scanners, that makes
> speed less of an issue usually, but I really do not think, we should waste
> lots of ressources interpreting bytecode, when all that is needed for
> getting a platform supported is ./configure;make;.

I'm not the greatest fan of it either, but the idea has mert. And you
already said above the problem with ./configure;make (manufactures won't
release source, and don't expect the to help you out either if you try to
attach your scanner to a Sun3 like I've considered)

(as someone else suggested, this is called Jini, someone with connections
should contact sun and see if we can get this part of the standard out
soon. If Twain requires in the next release that all scanners do Jini it
will go a long way towards the goal. [There are competing standards with
Jini, so long as linux and xBsd support is easy to add I'm netural to
which one is used])

> > serial ports in favor of Usb. (this probably isn't pratical yet, but a
> > footnote to suggest moving to USB)
>
> Note, that USB support in Unix is severly lacking.

depends, the xBSDs have support in stable code, Linux is a bit behind, but
that is promised. Only time will tell if USB lives up to the hype, but I
keep hoping it does, but without the "We won't tell you how out scanner
talks over the parrell port" that we face today.

> > I don't think Sane provides a network neighborhood type scanner brwoser,
> > but that would be a nice addition.
>
> No, it doesn't. It would be possible, though. The simplest way would be
> to autoprobe through the whole subnet. Other than that an announcement
> scheme would have to be invented.

Hear that Twain team? this is one thing that Sane doesn't have that the
unified standard should.

    --
          http://www.black-hole.com/users/henrymiller/
          hank@black-hole.com

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