Michael Nagel <ubuntu at nailor.devzero.de> writes: > Hi everyone, > > I'd like to hear your opinion/feedback on the following idea: > > Background: > [... device related bug reports submitted against scanner applications > not being as useful as they could be and perhaps even slowing things > down ...] > They contain some valuable information, BUT that information would be much > more > useful if it was somewhat structured and stored in a database. > [...] > 1) users can search it for information on how to get their scanner working > 2) users can browse it to decide what scanner to buy > 3) developers might analyze it to get an overview and spot regressions > > HOWEVER: unfortunately, there is no such database currently.
As Johannes mentioned in his reply, there is a database for printers[1] that might be useful as a starting point. Many scanners come equipped with a printer these days and to the user it really is a single device. Several printer vendors are actively updating the database for their new models. [1] http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting > [...] > I talked to Robert Ancell from Simple Scan, > and he is definitely interested and supporting this. > I talked to K?re S?rs from Skanlite/libksane, > and he is basically supporting this as well. You may want to get in touch with Till Kamppeter (Linux Foundation OpenPrinting Manager) as well. I Cc:d him on this reply. > So get your hats ready and tell me what you think about it as a > SANE-standards-writer, backend-developer, frontend-developer, > packager for a distribution, debugger, supporter or end-user > and tell me what information would be useful for you... A lot of the functionality that I would like to see in any scanner database is already covered by the printer database. It's just all the scanner specific data that is missing. One scanner specific issue that I would like to see addressed by a (programmatically query-able) on-line database is the decision whether or not a device is a scanner (independent of whether there's a working driver for it). While for printers this is rather trivial, scanners often only show up as a "vendor specific" device and a database of what are scanners would be useful. Hope this helps, -- Olaf Meeuwissen, LPIC-2 FLOSS Engineer -- AVASYS CORPORATION FSF Associate Member #1962 Help support software freedom http://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=1962
