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Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 14:46:42 -0500
Message-Id: <201402171946.s1HJkgZK032307@envy.delorie.com>
From: DJ Delorie <dj AT delorie DOT com>
To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
In-reply-to:
	<CADefDOFZpsbx909CVRp91AQwKq5+FjvhCacdKtGj5uh-QwyWPA AT mail DOT gmail DOT com>
	(message from Michai Ramakers on Mon, 17 Feb 2014 16:04:58 +0100)
Subject: Re: [geda-user] gEDA as alternative for KiCad (for me)?
References: <CADefDOFZpsbx909CVRp91AQwKq5+FjvhCacdKtGj5uh-QwyWPA AT mail DOT gmail DOT com>
Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com


> Before wading through docs and giving it a serious try,

There are some tutorials that might be better than wading,
try:

http://www.delorie.com/pcb/docs/gs/ - although this doesn't use pcb's
	new File->Import option

http://www.delorie.com/electronics/rulz/A31L.html - This is a
	presentation/lab I gave a few years ago that does board
	design/debug/programming with 100% GUI using the gEDA tools.

> - runs Linux/*BSD (I use NetBSD mostly)

Yes.

> - is stable and mature - no drastic sudden changes in workflow or
> file-format or similar

Yes.

> - uses plaintext file-format for interchange between suite-components

Yes.

> - comes with complete and detailed documentation - that includes
> file-format details, so I can script against that, and these scripts
> will continue to work over releases

Actually, the file formats are the best documented part of the
toolchain ;-)

> - has a coherent project-website (or rather, one-stop source of
> information, not scattered throughout the web)

http://www.geda-project.org/

> Furthermore, it would be nice to have a proper auto-router.

We've had a few autorouters in the past (two remain compiled-in), none
work as well as hand-routing.  I think there's a plugin that lets you
use external autorouters too.