Provided by: libsane-common_1.0.23-3ubuntu3.1_amd64 
NAME
sane-apple - SANE backend for Apple flatbed scanners
DESCRIPTION
The sane-apple library implements a SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) backend that provides
access to Apple flatbed scanners. At present, the following scanners are supported from
this backend:
--------------- ----- ------------------ ------
AppleScanner 4bit 16 Shades of Gray
OneScanner 8bit 256 Shades of Gray
ColorOneScanner 24bit RGB color 3-pass
If you own a Apple scanner other than the ones listed above that works with this backend,
please let us know by sending the scanner's model name, SCSI id, and firmware revision to
sane-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org. See http://www.sane-project.org/mailing-lists.html
for details on how to subscribe to sane-devel.
DEVICE NAMES
This backend expects device names of the form:
special
Where special is either the path-name for the special device that corresponds to a SCSI
scanner. For SCSI scanners, the special device name must be a generic SCSI device or a
symlink to such a device. Under Linux, such a device name could be /dev/sga or /dev/sge,
for example. See sane-scsi(5) for details.
CONFIGURATION
The apple.conf file is a list of options and device names that correspond to Apple
scanners. Empty lines and lines starting with a hash mark (#) are ignored. See
sane-scsi(5) on details of what constitutes a valid device name.
Options come in two flavors: global and positional ones. Global options apply to all
devices managed by the backend, whereas positional options apply just to the most recently
mentioned device. Note that this means that the order in which the options appear
matters!
SCSI ADAPTER TIPS
SCSI scanners are typically delivered with an ISA SCSI adapter. Unfortunately, that
adapter is not worth much since it is not interrupt driven. It is sometimes possible to
get the supplied card to work, but without an interrupt line, scanning will put so much
load on the system that it becomes almost unusable for other tasks.
FILES
/etc/sane.d/apple.conf
The backend configuration file (see also description of SANE_CONFIG_DIR below).
/usr/lib/arch_triplet/sane/libsane-apple.a
The static library implementing this backend.
/usr/lib/arch_triplet/sane/libsane-apple.so
The shared library implementing this backend (present on systems that support
dynamic loading).
ENVIRONMENT
SANE_CONFIG_DIR
This environment variable is list of directories where SANE looks for the
configuration file. Under UNIX directory names are separated by a colon (`:'),
under OS/2 by a semi-colon (`;'). If SANE_CONFIG_DIR is not set, SANE defaults to
searching the current working directory (".") and then /etc/sane.d. If the value
of $SANE_CONFIG_DIR ends with the separator character, the default directories are
searched after the directory list. For example, setting SANE_CONFIG_DIR to
"/tmp/config:" would result in directories "tmp/config", ".", and "/etc/sane.d"
being searched (in that order).
SANE_DEBUG_APPLE
Controls the debug level. A value of 255 prints all debug output. Smaller values
reduce verbosity. Requires a library compiled with debug support.
CURRENT STATUS
The apple backend is now in version 0.3 (Tue Jul 21 1998). Since I only have the
AppleScanner and not the other models (OneScanner, ColorOneScanner) I can only
develop/test for the AppleScanner effectively. However with this release I almost
completed the gui part of all scanners. Most of the functionality is there. At least
OneScanner should scan at the AppleScanner's compatible modes (LineArt, HalfTone, Gray16).
My personal belief is that with a slight touch of debugging the OneScanner could be
actually usable. The ColorOneScanner needs more work. AppleScanner is of course almost
fully supported.
MISSING FUNCTIONALITY
Currently all three models lack upload/download support.
AppleScanner
Cannot up/download a halftone pattern.
OneScanner
Cannot up/download halftone patterns or calibration vectors.
ColorOneScanner
Cannot up/download halftone patterns, calibration vectors, custom Color Correction
Tables (CCT) and of course custom gamma tables.
Park/UnPark (OneScanner, ColorOneScanner)
The above functionalities are missing because I don't have the hardware to experiment on.
Another reason is my lack of understanding as to how or if the SANE API provide means to
describe any array type besides gamma.
UNSUPPORTED FEATURES
The following "features" will never be supported, at least while I maintain the sane-apple
backend.
NoHome (AppleScanner)
The scanner lamp stays on and the carriage assembly remains where it stops at the
end of the scan. After two minutes, if the scanner does not receive another SCAN
command, the lamp goes off and the carriage returns to the home position.
Compression (AppleScanner)
The Scanner can compress data with CCITT Group III one dimensional algorithm (fax)
and the Skip White Line algorithm.
Multiple Windows (AppleScanner)
AppleScanner may support multiple windows. It would be a cool feature and a
challenge for me to code if it could intermix different options for different
windows (scan areas). This way it could scan a document in LineArt mode but the
figures in it in Gray and at a different resolution. Unfortunately this is
impossible.
Scan Direction (OneScanner)
It controls the scan direction. (?)
Status/Reset Button (OneScanner)
This option controls the status of the button on the OneScanner model. You can also
reset the button status by software.
BUGS
SANE backend bugs are divided in two classes. We have GUI bugs and scanner specific bugs.
We know we have a GUI bug when a parameter is not showing up when it should (active) or
vice versa. Finding out which parameters are active across various Apple modes and models
from the documentation
ftp://ftpdev.info.apple.com/devworld/Technical_Documentation/Peripherals_Documentation/ is
an interesting exercise. I may have missed some dependencies. For example of the threshold
parameter the Apple Scanners Programming Guide says nothing. I had to assume it is valid
only in LineArt mode.
Scanner specific bugs are mostly due to mandatory round-offs in order to scan. In the
documentation in one place states that the width of the scan area should be a byte
multiple. In another place it says that the width of the scan area should be an even byte
multiple. Go figure...
Other sources of bugs are due to scsi communication, scsi connects and disconnects.
However the classical bugs are still there. So you may encounter buffer overruns, null
pointers, memory corruption and SANE API violations.
SIGSEGV on SliceBars
When you try to modify the scan area from the slice bar you have a nice little cute
core dump. I don't know why. If you select the scan area from the preview window or
by hand typing the numbers everything is fine. The SIGSEGV happens deep in gtk
library (gdk). I really cannot debug it.
Options too much
It is possible, especially for the ColorOneScanner, for the backend's options panel
to extend beyond your screen. It happens with mine and I am running my X Server at
1024x768. What can I say? Try smaller fonts in the X server, or virtual screens.
Weird SCSI behaviour
I am quoting David Myers Here...
>> OS: FreeBSD 2.2.6
>> CC: egcs-1.02
Just wanted to follow up on this... I recently changed my SCSI card from the
Adaptec 2940UW to a dual-channel Symbios 786 chipset. When I started up SANE with
your driver, I managed to scan line art drawings okay, but Gray16 scans led to a
stream of SCSI error messages on the console, ultimately hanging with a message
saying the scanner wasn't releasing the SCSI bus. This may be that the Symbios is
simply less tolerant of ancient hardware, or may be bugs in your driver or in SANE
itself...
DEBUG
If you encounter a GUI bug please set the environmental variable SANE_DEBUG_APPLE to 255
and rerun the exact sequence of keystrokes and menu selections to reproduce it. Then send
me a report with the log attached.
If you have an Apple Macintosh with the AppleScanners driver installed, reporting to me
which options are grayed out (inactive) in what modes would be very helpful.
If you want to offer some help but you don't have a scanner, or you don't have the model
you would like to help with, or you are a SANE developer and you just want to take a look
at how the apple backend looks like, goto to apple.h and #define the NEUTRALIZE_BACKEND
macro. You can select the scanner model through the APPLE_MODEL_SELECT macro. Available
options are APPLESCANNER, ONESCANNER, COLORONESCANNER.
If you encounter a SCSI bus error or trimmed and/or displaced images please set the
environment variable SANE_DEBUG_SANEI_SCSI to 255 before sending me the report.
TODO
Non Blocking Support
Make sane-apple a non blocking backend. Properly support sane_set_io_mode and
sane_get_select_fd
Scan Make scanning possible for all models in all supported modes.
Missing Functionality
SEE ALSO
sane(7), sane-scsi(5)
AUTHOR
The sane-apple backend was written not entirely from scratch by Milon Firikis. It is
mostly based on the mustek backend from David Mosberger and Andreas Czechanowski
11 Jul 2008 sane-apple(5)