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Subject: Re: [geda-user] Re: developer excitement?
From: "Richard Rasker (rasker AT linetec DOT nl) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com]" <geda-user AT delorie DOT com>
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Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2015 10:50:14 +0200
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I don't know if this is the right time for some small stuff with regard
to gschem/PCB, but as I found a veritable mountain of new list messages
after a few days' absence, I reckon this is as good a time as any.

I haven't read through all the new messages yet, but I generally agree
that gEDA/gschem/PCB is quite a mature project, leaving only very few
things to be desired in my opinion. I use it on an almost weekly basis,
and frankly, I wouldn't want anything else.


The only issues that I can think of are some very minor things with
regard to gschem's workflow:

- When adding an attribute to an element, the 'Edit Attribute' dialog
has 'Visible - Show name and value' selected by default. Now I don't
know about other people's preferences, but I literally *never* want the
attribute's Name to show. Yes, it's simply a matter of one extra mouse
click to select 'Show value only' or untick the checkbox in the list
window, but it's slightly annoying all the same. So perhaps the default
selection could be 'Visible - Show value only'.

- Copying already defined elements is how I place most elements. Until
some time ago, the new copy was automatically selected, which I consider
the desired behavior: with the attribute editing window open, I could
change the new element's attributes right away.
Now, however, the original element stays selected, and I have to
explicitly click the copy to select it. Again no big deal, but slightly
annoying as a small change can make for an even smoother workflow.

Unfortunately, I'm not much good at coding, so I can't change this
myself, and that is why I mention it here. Yes, it is very minor,
bordering on nitpicking, but it's these small things that make an
already great tool even more pleasant to work with.

I may not be very good at coding, but I can return the favor in other
ways, though. Several years ago, I already contacted DJ about cleaning
up symbols and footprints, and he granted me access to gedasymbols.org
-- but just when I though I had a few weeks' summer holiday to spend on
this ... well, you know ... business ... (shame on me).

Anyway, I did write a small shell script that people might find handy: a
gschem/PCB project starter, see
http://www.linetec.nl/electronics/pcbcreate
(no doubt someone else already made something like this, but I couldn't
find it)

It assumes the existence of two template files template.sch and
template.pcb in a template directory (I simply chose ~/.gEDA):
http://www.linetec.nl/electronics/template.sch
http://www.linetec.nl/electronics/template.pcb

Create a directory for a new project, call pcbcreate [project_name], and
the appropriate gschem and PCB files are created, with consistent names
and PCB attributes (location of the gschem file) set -- especially
setting up the latter was always something that I found a bit fiddly (so
the import::src0 thing, and I often made mistakes in the path
definition). Perhaps someone else likes it too. And no doubt, this
script can be improved (did I mention I wasn't much good at coding?)

And oh, I could also improve the Dutch translation of PCB -- some words
appear to be translated by Google. E.g. 'Opmaak' for 'Layout', but in
Dutch the word 'opmaak' is only used for text and document layout; a PCB
layout is simply called 'layout' here as well. Another one is 'Silk',
which is translated by 'zijde' (the actual silkworm's produce). It
should be 'opdruk' (printed text). So where can I find the .po files? Or
alternatively, I could submit a list of errors -- it's only a small list
after all, perhaps a dozen or so.

Last but not least, I have created quite a few symbols and footprints
over the course of the years; I'm still cleaning them up and converting
the older ones to a more consistent scheme, but here's what I have
anyway: http://www.linetec.nl/electronics/footsym.zip

Please note that there's still some crud in there, and that the
designation 'PKR' is abbreviated from the Dutch 'printkroonsteen', which
means PCB terminal block.
Comments are welcome, of course.

Best regards,

Richard Rasker