Questions about adding support for a new slide format

[Benjamin Gilbert]

On Wed, Nov 5, 2025 at 6:46 PM 于若颖 via openslide-users <
openslide-users at lists.andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:

> Our developers have read your guidance file ‘Adding a New Slide Format to
> OpenSlide’, is this file all we need to develop and adjust our vendor
> driver?
>
> Once we finish the development of this driver, what are the steps we need
> to follow to add this new format to OpenSlide?
>

Thanks for your interest.  Also see the contribution guide <
https://openslide.org/docs/devguide/#contributing-your-code> and the
signoff guide <https://openslide.org/docs/signoff/>.

When developing the driver, you should not use any information obtained
under a non-disclosure agreement, or any similar restriction, that forbids
you from contributing an open-source driver or from talking about the
details of the slide format.  Contributions should be made by sending a
pull request to OpenSlide's GitHub repository <
https://github.com/openslide/openslide/>.  We prefer that you also
contribute format documentation to the OpenSlide website at <
https://github.com/openslide/openslide.github.io>, and we require that you
contribute at least one sample slide file under the Creative Commons Zero
license at <https://openslide.org/submit/>.

I should also warn you that the availability of code review is extremely
limited and there is a significant backlog of pull requests.  It is likely
that your contribution will not be reviewed for a year or more, and it is
possible that it will not be reviewed at all.  You can significantly
improve your chances of success by making code review easy: match the style
and layout of existing format drivers, use existing infrastructure where
possible, follow OpenSlide's patterns for memory allocation and error
handling, and make the code as clear as possible.

I also recommend that you discuss your proposed implementation on this
mailing list, or in a GitHub issue, before submitting code.  What are the
features of the slide format?  What hardware produces it?  How are the
slide files structured?  Are there any unusual characteristics that are
difficult to implement within OpenSlide's existing API or infrastructure?

All the best,
--Benjamin Gilbert
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.andrew.cmu.edu/pipermail/openslide-users/attachments/20251105/657f4f77/attachment-0001.html>