"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 15 Apr 1999: >Subject: Re: DOS Scanners > ... >Twain, that is that seemingly universal (in doze, but many kinds of >software) interface. It has a console look, ... > ... >Okay, so it's common, and can't therefore be too hard to get >the source? TWAIN is a high-level specification for an interface to scanners (or similar devices). Therefore the specific appearance to the user may vary between different twain scanners. The standard just describes the way of calling this interface from programs and how to get at the scan results (from a program). The TWAIN specification is freely available on the web (Warning: it is more than 400 pages!). This however, does not help us towards using DOS scanners, as the TWAIN standard defines the needed API calls only for Windows and Macintosh. So, before we will ever see DOS TWAIN Scanners, the TWAIN committee first has to specify a DOS API at all! (When I had to interface to TWAIN scanners from our DOS products, I wrote a little windows program [controlled by a command file from the DOS box] which uses the standard Win-API for TWAIN. So, it can be done from DOS already now, but currently only in the DOS box of Win3.x/9x/NT and not in a pure DOS environment.) Or Botton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 16 Apr 1999: >Subject: Re: DOS Scanners > >TWAIN means Tool Without An Intresting Name. Actually, the original meaning was "Technology without an important name". The reason is historical: When the TWAIN committee started its work, several companies attempted to get their already existing proprietory scanner interfaces into the emerging standard - or at least its name. To avoid wasting time with "name wars", the committee members decided that they first wanted to produce the specification and then give it a name. To express this clearly, they used the placeholder "technology without an important name" and as a joke abbreviated it "TWAIN". However, when the specification finally was complete, everybody had gotten so used to "TWAIN" that they did not want to change it anymore! But, of course, they could not leave "technology without an important name" as the official title for an established industry standard. So, formally, the TWAIN home page states in its FAQ that currently there is no official "long form" for TWAIN. But the above story is how it all came about ... - Wolfgang Redtenbacher --------------------------------------------------------- Redtenbacher Software Tel.: +49 7159 17046 Roemerstr. 11/1 Fax: +49 7159 17047 D-71272 Renningen e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies.
