Re: Sane drivers

Hugo van der Kooij (hvdkooij@caiw.nl)
Mon, 5 Apr 1999 10:27:32 +0200 (CEST)

On Sun, 4 Apr 1999, Petter Reinholdtsen wrote:

> [Henry Miller]
> > The person in this role should collect the scsi command set to all
> > scanners, and when someone requests it, get a proper NDA, and then
> > send the info out. Make sure that the NDA allows code to be
> > distributed of course. This doesn't imply writting a driver for
> > every backend. (in fact someone who writes the backend may be so
> > lost in technical details as to be worthless as a technical contact)
>
> Why not collect .pdf and .ps files at some central site, where all
> potential developers can get them. Most technical documentation is
> available electronically, so there is really no need for a person
> shuffling paper.
>
> BTW: I don't think SANE developers should accept signing a NDA to
> write drivers for scanners. _ever_. Vendors refusing to give out
> technical specs without NDA should be convinced that this is a bad
> idea, but we should not make drivers where the source is closed.

Which was my point exactly. The open source community (leaded by the
XFree86 team) was able to convince both Diamond and Matrox to release info
on their products in this same fashion. Just clearly state that there are
no drivers as the manufacturer is not willing to give out specs.

Hugo.

+------------------------+------------------------------+
| Hugo van der Kooij | Hugo.van.der.Kooij@caiw.nl |
| Oranje Nassaustraat 16 | http://www.caiw.nl/~hvdkooij |
| 3155 VJ Maasland | (De man met de rode hoed) |
+------------------------+------------------------------+
"Computers let you make more mistakes faster than any other invention in
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(Mitch Radcliffe)

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