[sane-devel] where to put firmware files?

[Matto Marjanovic]

 >additional identification parameter that could be used perhaps via
 >a hash function of some sort that would allow us to uniquely identify 
 >the firmware files with the scanners.

Hee-hee... it's kind of funny to come back from a weekend out of town to
 find one lonely email from Henning pleading "Why doesn't anyone have an
 opinion on the proposed changes to the SANE specification?", and at the
 same time to find 800 emails from people who are very concerned about
 where a few firmware files are going to go.

Anyhow, since I suggested the "backend-specific directory in .../share/sane/",
 here are additional reasons for why I had suggested it:

 o .../share/sane/BACKENDNAME/ seems like the right place to put any files
    which a particular backend needs, which are independent of the platform
    or the particular installation (i.e. not computer-specific and not a
    configuration file).  I don't know what else this could be, perhaps
    things like ICC profiles which are scanner-specific.

 o It really shouldn't matter what a firmware file is named or where it is;
    this is just a "SANE" place to put such a file if you're going to use it
    with SANE.  Hence, Henning's implementation of an override mechanism in
    the config file.

 o If the firmware file I needed were sitting on a Windows partition, I would
    copy it to a local SANE directory in order to use it for SANE, instead of
    pointing SANE to the Windows installation.  Why?  Because wouldn't want
    to give Windows the chance to break my SANE setup!

 o If you have no control over the *original* names of the firmware files,
    then there is no point in developing an elaborate scheme for how to 
    *rename* them.  It doesn't matter.  Someone still has to know the original
    names, before renaming them; you might as well just have a list and lookup
    that original name rather than a procedural lookup.  And then at least,
    when some naive user writes for help on the sane-devel list, the original
    filename may give some clues to what the problem is.


The first two reasons are the most important....
-matt m.