[sane-devel] The future of the SANE-Standard

[m. allan noah]

On Dec 21, 2007 2:36 PM, Alessandro Zummo <azummo-lists at towertech.it> wrote:
> On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 19:51:04 +0100
> Alessandro Zummo <azummo-lists at towertech.it> wrote:
>
> > >
> > > Just adding the new frames & options and leave it at that, like
> > > planned ?
> >
> > > What you're proposing is just perverting the API and an inacceptable
> > > change in the behaviour of the current API.
> >
> >  I would like to avoid exposing the new frame types to unaware
> >  frontends.
>
>  replying to myself, that means I'm gone banana :)
>
>  the options are:
>
>  a) add types and options, with little risk
>  for older backends.
>
>  b) add and protect via current api mangling
>
>  c) add and protect via new api.
>
>
>  option c means that some linking combinations will not work,
>  like linking an 1.1 aware frontend with a non 1.1 aware backend.
>  I guess this shouldn't happen. If it happens, it's fixable
>  by adding a few lines of code to the backend. at this point, I never
>  heard of any frontend that does directly linking of a backend.
>
>  while I favour option c , I'm not against any of them.
>

if i understand your list, there is a 4th option- add and _inform_ by
SONAME/version# change.

Bumping the SONAME seems to be the only way to make the outside world
aware that they should inspect their code for compatibility, but even
if they do not, it will still work, since these new frame types will
not be the default case. It also prevents us from having to do any
modifications to the dozens of existing backends that wont have the
new frame types or options. (unlike b and c).

allan

-- 
"The truth is an offense, but not a sin"