X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to geda-user-bounces using -f X-Recipient: geda-user AT delorie DOT com Message-ID: <508E483B.8050201@mtu.edu> Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2012 02:11:23 -0700 From: Cory Cross User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:8.0) Gecko/20120104 Icedove/8.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: [geda-user] The state of gEDA/gaf (Was gEDA/PCBs diversity, Was: Pin hole size) References: <2CB304B5-9587-4734-84E4-49F464744D11 AT noqsi DOT com> <6BF2E986-51EB-41E9-A4AD-8071CD00B1A1 AT jump-ing DOT de> <834283D4-0891-486E-A981-2FF20B32C615 AT noqsi DOT com> <54CAA7EE-7638-4B89-8197-111D0493F859 AT noqsi DOT com> <508CE947 DOT 4050408 AT xs4all DOT nl> In-Reply-To: <508CE947.4050408@xs4all.nl> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="------------010300030809010304040302" Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------010300030809010304040302 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On 10/28/2012 01:13 AM, Bert Timmerman wrote: > > KiCad does that with integration of schematic capture + PCB layout + > 3D views and models, > > gEDA-tools do that with ... letting the user find his way in a maze of > dispersed tools. Perhaps the easier option is to port gEDA's best features to Kicad? As far as I understand, the reason to do any of this is to get more users and more developers. But I think the former is hampered by the command-line focus and operating-system near-dependency and the latter by a mish-mash of older libraries in straight-up C. You could go to all the work to reinvent the smooth flow done in Kicad, but it'll still be an unsexy codebase and you'd just be duplicating work. The biggest pain for me is creating new parts. If there was just one global database that held everybody's parts, that you could search by part number and edit at will, and -- here's the best part -- be able to work with multiple EDA tools, it wouldn't matter much whether people were using gEDA or Kicad or upverter or whatever, because when someone adds a part to Kicad, I get it too. It certainly would be less work than integrating gschem & pcb, and a heck of a lot more useful! Basically DJ's idea http://www.delorie.com/pcb/component-dbs.html except one database for everyone, pull data from vendors/octopart automatically when creating a symbol (i.e. if I type "OPA330AIDBVT " it should already pre-fill the SOT23-5 footprint), have a very easy way to fill the mapping between symbol and footprint, and be able to record when a component is verified in a very easy manner (like after a board is populated and all the parts fit, I should be able to point a program at my project and have it tell the database that all the parts in the project are correct). I'm not up to doing it myself, yet. :( Cory --------------010300030809010304040302 Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On 10/28/2012 01:13 AM, Bert Timmerman wrote:

KiCad does that with integration of schematic capture + PCB layout + 3D views and models,

gEDA-tools do that with ... letting the user find his way in a maze of dispersed tools.

Perhaps the easier option is to port gEDA's best features to Kicad?

As far as I understand, the reason to do any of this is to get more users and more developers. But I think the former is hampered by the command-line focus and operating-system near-dependency and the latter by a mish-mash of older libraries in straight-up C.

You could go to all the work to reinvent the smooth flow done in Kicad, but it'll still be an unsexy codebase and you'd just be duplicating work.

The biggest pain for me is creating new parts. If there was just one global database that held everybody's parts, that you could search by part number and edit at will, and -- here's the best part -- be able to work with multiple EDA tools, it wouldn't matter much whether people were using gEDA or Kicad or upverter or whatever, because when someone adds a part to Kicad, I get it too. It certainly would be less work than integrating gschem & pcb, and a heck of a lot more useful! Basically DJ's idea http://www.delorie.com/pcb/component-dbs.html except one database for everyone, pull data from vendors/octopart automatically when creating a symbol (i.e. if I type "" it should already pre-fill the SOT23-5 footprint), have a very easy way to fill the mapping between symbol and footprint, and be able to record when a component is verified in a very easy manner (like after a board is populated and all the parts fit, I should be able to point a program at my project and have it tell the database that all the parts in the project are correct).

I'm not up to doing it myself, yet. :(

Cory
--------------010300030809010304040302--