Re: gnome 2.19 schedule.

["Donald Straney" <burntfuse gmail com>]

> People shouldn't be expected to start a service when they insert a
> scanner - this stuff should just work from a users perspective.

The idea is that it would be registered as a HAL callout, so it would
start when a scanner was plugged in and exit after 20 seconds if there
was no activity and no buttons to monitor.  Still less efficient than
an addon, though.

> Why do we need imcapd? The thought of yet another service just to
> monitor scanner buttons scares me a little. Why not just write a HAL
> addon (100 lines of C) to query the scanner? Each type of scanner (hp,
> epson, mustek) can have it's own addon, and just have a single abstract
> event: ButtonPressed 'scanner' which can be easily handled by the
> session.
>
> Addons are launched automatically only if the hardware is connected, all
> communication is via audited secure code, and over DBUS. Win win win.

If SANE-supported devices are registered with a "scanner" or "image
capture" capability (I think there's been some talk on their mailing
lists about a utility to generate HAL device files for doing something
similar), then that sounds like a great idea to me.  It would be nice
to keep things as simple as possible, and this would definitely
simplify it a lot.  Each scanner wouldn't even need its own addon -
there can just be one which uses SANE's option handling for monitoring
buttons (this is how all button monitoring daemons do it).  Since
imcapd has got some decent code already, I could either start
reworking it as a HAL addon or pass it on to someone who has more
experience.

Donald Straney