I am interested in developing a backend for the Lexmark X5250 All-in-One printer/scanner/copier, and will need help getting started.
All research I have done to date indicates the following: 1. Lexmark's "developer's kit" (LDK 2.0) offers weak support for the few units for which their sample code works. The X5250 is one of the supported devices, but I got the impression that it only works on older versions of LINUX kernels. (I am running Fedora Core 7) 2. Use of LDK is not very intuitive and will take significant time to use, with questionable results. 3. Other parties, having tried to use LDK, appear to have had better success reverse-engineering the unit in Windows and starting from scratch on a new backend. (example: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/sane-devel/2005-November/015399.html) I haven't tried the LDK, but have read enough to believe writing a new backend would be a more efficient use of my time. I have 11 years experience in the field as a programmer and am fluent in many languages, but will be new to this process. I would appreciate any help / advice for getting started, especially regarding tools to use for scanning Windows while running the printer, what language is used for writing backends (C?), if there is a preferred IDE for development, and how to connect to the CVS repository if/when I develop anything of use. Lexmark made a good unit (at least, compared to some of HP's more pitiful offerings I've endured over the last 12 years); it's sad that they should be so narrow-minded as to all but pay lip-service to the LINUX community. Apparently, they have yet to realize exactly how large a community they are ostracizing. I have no intention of buying any product of theirs again, but would like to use my bad investment to help others. Sean P Murphy
