sane-project-website/old-archive/1996-12/0006.html

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<!-- name="David Mosberger-Tang" -->
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<title>sane-devel: invitation to join SANE development (Scanner Access Now Easy)</title>
<h1>invitation to join SANE development (Scanner Access Now Easy)</h1>
<b>David Mosberger-Tang</b> (<a href="mailto:davidm@azstarnet.com"><i>davidm@azstarnet.com</i></a>)<br>
<i>Sat, 14 Dec 1996 15:55:11 -0700</i>
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Since you're the author of one of the Linux scanner packages, we would<br>
like to invite you to take a look at the SANE package.  We would very<br>
much welcome if you would consider joining the development efforts by<br>
providing feedback on the proposed standard and/or porting a driver to<br>
it.<br>
<p>
SANE is an attempt to provide a uniform yet versatile API to raster<br>
scanner hardware (scanners, frame grabbers, still cameras, etc.).<br>
SANE was born out of the frustration that under Linux, each scanner<br>
driver writer also had to write his/her own scanning utility.  This<br>
leads to a lot of wasted time and needless duplication of efforts.  We<br>
therefore created a very simple API that solves this problem by<br>
providing a well-defined intermediate "language" that allows any<br>
user-interface to talk to any scanner driver.  We already have a<br>
nearly full-featured command-line-based user-interface (called<br>
"frontend" in SANE-speak), a graphical user-interface that works<br>
either as a GIMP plug-in or as a standalone program (this is still<br>
under development, but basic scanning works already and progress is<br>
being made quickly).  As for drivers, there is currently support for<br>
Mustek flatbed scanners and for a pseudo-device that allows to read<br>
and manipulate PPM files (the latter is primarily a vehicle to show<br>
how to write a SANE backend, but it is fully functional).  There is<br>
also a "meta-backend" that uses (ELF) dynamic linking to provide<br>
transparent access to any other backend (this means that installing a<br>
new driver consists simply of installing a new shared library---none<br>
of the scanner applications will have to change or be relinked).<br>
<p>
Well, enough dribble.  If you're interested, please take a look at:<br>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.azstarnet.com/~axplinux/sane/">http://www.azstarnet.com/~axplinux/sane/</a><br>
<p>
This web page contains a pointer to the online documentation for the<br>
proposed SANE standard (both html and PostScript are available) as<br>
well as a pointer to the existing source code and a mailing list<br>
archive.<br>
<p>
Please be aware that this is still pre-beta software and that the<br>
"standard" is still open to changes (in fact, as mentioned above, your<br>
thoughts would be very welcome).  Thus, we would prefer if you would<br>
not announce this information widely at this point.  We plan to do so<br>
fairly soon, but don't feel that we have quite reached the point where<br>
we should do so publicly.  However, things should be stable enough<br>
that it would be safe to write more backends or frontends based on the<br>
current code and documentation.  It is, of course, perfectly all-right<br>
to forward this mail to other people who you think might be interested<br>
in actively contributing to the SANE development efforts.<br>
<p>
I believe SANE is a unique opportunity to significantly advance the<br>
state of the art for scanner support under Linux and Unix in general.<br>
SANE is young enough that you can make an important and lasting<br>
contribution to this effort.  If you share the excitement for this<br>
opportunity and are tired of writing a scanning utility _again_,<br>
please take a minute to look at SANE and determine how it might fit<br>
with your software---and by all means join the SANE developers mailing<br>
list (<a href="mailto:sane-devel@azstarnet.com">sane-devel@azstarnet.com</a>).  The volume on that mailing list is<br>
very reasonable so that it does not consume a lot of time.<br>
<p>
Enjoy,<br>
	--david<br>
<pre>
-- 
David Mosberger-Tang; Dept. of CS; The University of Arizona; Tucson, AZ 85721
<a href="mailto:davidm@{cs.arizona.edu">davidm@{cs.arizona.edu</a>,azstarnet.com}  <a href="http://www.cs.arizona.edu/people/davidm">http://www.cs.arizona.edu/people/davidm</a>
<a href="mailto:david.mosberger@acm.org">david.mosberger@acm.org</a>            <a href="http://www.cs.arizona.edu/scout/suncam.html">http://www.cs.arizona.edu/scout/suncam.html</a>
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