Re: [Gnumed-devel] packaging help needed - TWAIN, XSANE, SANE

[Jim Busser]

On 29-Aug-09, at 6:00 PM, Karsten Hilbert wrote:

> Supposedly, TWAIN access to scanners could be "better" than xsane
> (because supplied by the scanner vendor). It would also give access
> to "all" scanners since every single one should have a TWAIN driver.

Apparently TWAIN 2.0 is going to be open source (LGPL BSD) and  
available on Linux:

        http://www.twain.org/docs/TWAIN_2_Features.pdf

whereas a key SANE advantage remains a scanner-server that operates  
across a network.


> > On Mac, might options include user's choice of:
> >
> >         XSANE / SANE
> >                  (GNUmed-operable)?
> >
> >         or
> >
> >         TWAIN SANE Interface for MacOS X / SANE
> >                  (GNUmed-inoperable)?
>
> both should work

More than the above, it sounds like GNUmed is not supposed to be  
purely SANE-dependent.

There exist lots of non-SANE scanners which Macs can operate purely  
via TWAIN. In fact, the Mac from which I was running client 0.5.0  
under Leopard remains connected to a Brother MFC USB scanner which the  
Mac-native application "Image Capture" detects and operates.

Is the obstacle that GNUmed needs to know how to "call" the  
acquisition frontend? On the Mac, a shell command of the following  
form can invoke any .app:

        open -a <appName> (caveat: any spaces must be escaped "\")

e.g.	open -a Image\ Capture will bring "Image Capture" to the  
foreground.

Might we implement a TWAINapp parameter in gnumed.config (commented- 
out by default, else an empty "", for Linux SANE) and could the client  
combine the app name with knowledge (depending on the OS) how to call  
this app? Maybe this would spare one more dependency (twainmodule for  
Windows) unless there is a preference to keep twainmodule for Windows?

References:

http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2002/tn2088.html
http://www.ellert.se/twain-sane/faq.html        
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9979404
http://www.twain.org/mac/TWAIN_for_Mac_OS_X_SDK.dmg.bin

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/scanners_with_OSX_leopard.html
http://technicallyeasy.net/2008/12/scanning-old-photos-get-vuescan/