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From: Benjamin Bergman <ben AT benbergman DOT ca>
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2012 22:39:34 -0500
Message-ID: <CA+DWcQaZOFbC7GD2-TNARxUqPjrpHT+sMfyUUnkL+zSfjXDPnQ@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [geda-user] The state of gEDA/gaf (Was gEDA/PCBs diversity, Was:
 Pin hole size)
To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
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On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 6:32 PM, John Doty <jpd AT noqsi DOT com> wrote:
> I think this is related to the trouble I have understanding pcb. I expect a program like this to allow me to tell it "put a hole in this and that; put copper hither and yon". It shouldn't be necessary to implement "buried vias" in pcb: the user should be able to describe a buried via (or any other composite structure). Instead, pcb implements nothing but composites, and limits you to its built in set, whose members have properties difficult to understand.

This is probably the thing that has annoyed me the most with pcb too.
I feel that any layer should be like any other layer. The fact that
some things can only happen in certain layers, the silk layers are
combined in a non-intuitive way in the GUI, etc. is a substantial
barrier to entry.

I think pcb is a fantastic tool and I have used it to design a few
boards, but I think there is some unneeded complexity in the
interface. I don't know if there is currently any effort to correct
this, but I would be willing to lend a hand to do some of this
development. I haven't touched the code much, but if someone wants to
point me to a good starting place, I'm all ears.

Ben