[sane-devel] Additional frame types in Sane 1

[René Rebe]

Hi,

On 02.06.2007, at 22:05, m. allan noah wrote:

> On 6/2/07, René Rebe <rene at exactcode.de> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> On 02.06.2007, at 20:59, Étienne Bersac wrote:
>>
>> > So what is the conclusion of the thread ?
>>
>> don't now. Response stopped.
>>
>> For me it means I'll have a private patch, probably inside the T2  
>> SDE:
>>
>>    http://www.t2-project.org/
>>
>> I can not and will not spend 4 years of recoding SANE just for 2 new
>> (missing) frame types.
>>
>> We need to get free software stable, solid and feature complete - not
>> ever changing.
>>
>> I do not see any reason to drastically redo SANE just some people
>> want too, and neither the free coding slaves to do that. There are  
>> not
>> many reasons why the current SANE standard should be abondone.
>>
>> As far as I can see gradually enhancing it is way more doable and
>> reasonable and also matches the available developer resources.
>>
>
> i have spent some time looking at scanimage.c.  i think the
> modifications required to support the new frame types will be somewhat
> more extensive than i had hoped, but it can be done.
>
> however, oliver's objections to API instability have resonated with
> me, such that i am hesitant to commit this to sane cvs without a
> little more discussion. yes, it could remain a private patch, but i
> would like our work to reach the widest audience possible.
>
> i wonder if the best solution is a 'middle road' of starting iterative
> development of sane2 based on current sane1. I know folks are hesitant
> to begin without the draft spec completed, so maybe this idea is also
> a non-starter.

Thing is, Open Source does not work by sitting in a private round
discussing for years - but by actually coding.

None of the successive projects starts programming "when some
draft was done", but the Linux kernel, GNOME, KDE people just
gradually code what is needed and makes sense.

Also note the similar delay in the big major rewrites, such as
GNOME 1.4 -> GNOME 2 or now KDE 3 -> KDE 4 or e.g.
Gimp 1 -> Gimp 2 took.

Just gradually evolving "what is needed" and not what
"someone thinks might be nice in 5 years" is more what
brought the big projects to where they are today.

Yours,
   René