kopia lustrzana https://gitlab.com/sane-project/website
176 wiersze
8.1 KiB
HTML
176 wiersze
8.1 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>SANE - Contributing</title>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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<meta name="author" content="Henning Meier-Geinitz">
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<meta name="keywords" content="sane, scanner, help, helping, contributing, contribution">
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<meta name="description" content="Contributing to SANE">
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<link href="mailto:hmg-guest@users.alioth.debian.org" rev="made">
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<link rel="icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">
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<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">
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</head>
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<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
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<center>
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<a href="http://www.sane-project.org"><img src="images/sane.png"
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alt="SANE" height="117" width="346" border="0"></a>
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</center>
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<center>
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<h1>SANE - Contributing or: How Can You Help SANE?</h1>
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</center>
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<hr>
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<p>
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We appreciate any help we can get. Here are some topics on which you can work:
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</p>
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<h2><a href="manufacturers.html">Information for Manufacturers</a></h2>
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<p>
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Are you a manufacturer or vendor of scanners and one of your scanners is not supported by SANE
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yet? In this case please have a look at our <a
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href="manufacturers.html">information for manufacturers</a>.
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</p>
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<h2>Reporting Unsupported Scanners and Adding more information</h2>
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<p>
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If you can provide more information for one of the scanners that's listed as "unsupported" in
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our <a href="lists/sane-backends-cvs.html#S-UNSUPPORTED">current list of unsupported
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scanners</a> or even want to add a new scanner, please send all information you have to us.
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If you own an unsupported scanner, please send as much information as possible. Especially the
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output of <em>sane-find-scanner -v -v</em> and/or <em>cat /proc/scsi/scsi</em> (for SCSI
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scanners) or <em>cat /proc/bus/usb/devices</em> (for USB scanners) can help. If you dare to
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open the scanner, have a look at the text that's printed on the chips. That may help to
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identify the chipset. If you know that the scanner is similar to another one (e.g. supported
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by the same Windows driver), please also mention this fact. Contact us by sending mail to the
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<a href="mailing-lists.html">sane-devel mailing list</a> or
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<a href="bugs.html">file a bug report</a>.
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</p>
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<h2>Writing a Backend (Driver)</h2>
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<p>
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If your scanner is unsupported by SANE, please consider writing a
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backend for it. As scanners are very different to each other, you can't
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expect the SANE developers to write the backend for you. If your scanner
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is similar to one that already works, it may be easy to add support. But
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if it's necessary to write a completely new backend, it's up to you.
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</p>
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<p>
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The time and skills needed for writing a backend depends on the
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"intelligence" of the scanner. If it's rather high-level,
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i.e. understand commands like "scan-at-600-dpi", it may be possible to
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write a basic driver in 10-20 hours. If the protocol is more low-level
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(e.g. move-motor-one-step), it can take much longer.
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</p>
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<p>
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You don't need to be an experienced programmer. Backends are usually
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written in C, so some basic knowledge of this language helps. You need a
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lot of patience, however, especially if you can't get programmer's
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documentation from your scanner's manufacturer.
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</p>
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<p>
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If you intend to write a backend: contact the <a
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href="mailing-lists.html">sane-devel mailing list</a> and let us know. Get
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all the information about your scanner that's available: chipset
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application manual (sometimes it's on the web), Windows drivers used
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(sometimes they tell which chipset is used), programmer's information (if
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the manufacturer provides those). If you don't have enough information
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about the protocol used by the scanner, <a
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href="http://www.meier-geinitz.de/sane/misc/develop.html">try to find out
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what the MS Windows driver does</a>. For basic information about how SANE
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works, get the latest <a href="cvs.html">development version of SANE</a>,
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read man sane and <a
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href="backend-writing.txt">doc/backend-writing.txt</a>. Also have a look
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at existing backends, e.g. one of the USB backends, if you want to support
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a USB scanner.
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</p>
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<h2>Writing a Frontend</h2>
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<p>
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There are already <a href="sane-frontends.html">some very capable frontends</a>. So helping
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with improving the existing frontends may make more sense than to write yet another one. On
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the other hand there may be reasons to start writing a completely new frontend, like support
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for a specific widget set, a programming language or a special type of devices (e.g. cameras,
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slide scanners). In any case, keep the <a href="mailing-lists.html">sane-devel mailing
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list</a> informed of your plans.
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</p>
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<h2>Hiring a developer</h2>
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<p>
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Some SANE developers have been known to produce backends in exchange for
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hardware or money. Cost would depend on the developer and the scanner, but
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could be quite high if the protocol is obtuse or lacking documentation. As
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a general rule, the cost of the backend is inversely proportional to the
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cost of the scanner. Cheap USB or parallel-port scanners can take hundreds
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of hours of frustrating work, only to extract poor quality images. Costly
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SCSI (or SCSI-over-USB) scanners are generally much easier to support, and
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their vendors are generally more open with documentation.
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</p>
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<p>
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If the scanner is rare or expensive, you may need to provide hardware
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access. Physical access is significantly easier, but remote shell may
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suffice. If these cannot be arranged, expect to provide packet dumps of
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the device in action using a protocol sniffer.
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</p>
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<p>
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If the resultant code is derived from SANE, note that it will still be
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covered by the GPL/SANE license. Please contact the
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<a href="mailing-lists.html">sane-devel mailing list</a>
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for more info and to find interested developers.
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</p>
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<h2>Reporting Bugs and Missing Features</h2>
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<p>
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If you think something in SANE isn't working as it should, please don't hesitate to <a
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href="bugs.html">file a bug report</a> Please provide as many details as possible. Describe
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which software you are using (operating system + version, distribution, version of
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sane-backends and of the frontend you use). Explain exactly what doesn't work, is wrong or
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missing.
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</p>
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<h2>Adding and fixing documentation</h2>
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<p>
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If you found a bug in any documentation (man pages, web site, READMEs), please contact us
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using the <a href="mailing-lists.html">sane-devel mailing list</a> or <a href="bugs.html">file
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a bug report</a>. Also write us if you think some documentation is missing. Please include a
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patch in this case, if possible. Don't hesitate to send spelling and grammar mistakes. Most of
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us are not native English speakers.
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</p>
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<h2>Translations</h2>
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<p>
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The options of the backends can be translated. For some languages, the translations are almost
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complete, but some are lacking a lot of words and for most languages there is no translation
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at all. If you want to help to translate the options to your native language (or a language
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you speak fluently), contact the <a href="mailing-lists.html">sane-devel mailing list</a> and
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have a look at the po/ directory in the <a href="cvs.html">source code</a>.
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</p>
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<h2>Success reports</h2>
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<p>
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If you had success using SANE we want to know about that, too. Especially if your scanner is
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not in the lists yet or is marked "untested". Please send an email to the <a
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href="mailing-lists.html">sane-devel mailing list</a> or <a href="bugs.html">file a bug
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report</a>.
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</p>
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<hr>
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<p>
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<a href="/">SANE homepage</a><br>
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<a href="imprint.html">Contact</a>
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</p>
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<p>
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<font size="-1">$Date$ $Author$</font>
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</p>
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</body>
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</html>
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