Arrived in SFO for DPA

[Benjamin Gilbert]

On 10/17/2014 03:34 PM, PD Dr. M. Weihrauch wrote:
> Also, how does it work with file-formats anyway: If we find out
> ourselves, how a certain file format works, are we automatically allowed
> to implement that into OpenSlide or do the scanner-vendors have to agree
> that we read their formats?

If development is done properly, they don't need to agree.  (Standard 
disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.)

Ideally, vendors would publicly document their formats (Aperio has done 
this in the past), in which case we can use their documentation.  In 
contrast, some vendors will provide documentation, but only under a 
non-disclosure agreement, and those agreements often do not explicitly 
state whether creating an open-source program to read the format is 
"disclosing" the contents of the documentation.  In general, my own 
choice is not to accept NDAs (and, thus, not to use the restricted 
documentation), though that is not necessarily the only possible 
approach.  Since this leaves me with very little usable documentation, I 
end up spending a lot of time with file format samples, tiffdump, and a 
hex editor.  (One reason why file format samples are so important!)

> I would be especially interested in being able to read
> - Olympus images (.vsi + .ets)

We do have Olympus samples in openslide-testdata, but I haven't spent a 
lot of time examining them.  If anyone else wants to do so, insights 
would be welcome.

> - Zeiss images

We have some ZVI images, but no CZI images, and I gather that CZI is 
more important for OpenSlide's use cases.  If you can provide some 
samples, let me know.

--Benjamin Gilbert