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Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2015 14:12:52 -0800
From: Larry Doolittle <ldoolitt AT recycle DOT lbl DOT gov>
To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: [geda-user] FOSDEM
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Evan -

On Sat, Feb 07, 2015 at 04:08:14PM -0500, Evan Foss wrote:
> I really think having PCB work & look respectable is more critical to
> pulling in a community than messing with Lua.

I agree in theory.  But there are some deep limitations to PCB that
make a file format change inevitable, if it's to work "respectably" into
the future.  The limitation I'm most aware of is the nearly non-existent
description of a pad-stack.

As long as the format has to change, the discussion here starts
(forgive me for putting words in people's mouths) by wondering how
best to change it; and one clear goal is to change it such that further
changes are easy, and maximally forward and backward compatible.

I'm one of the many people who got used to using awk and grep to
help me work with PCB files.  But I'm sure I could get used to
firing up python for those jobs, with the understanding that people
who favor perl, scheme, lua, mathematica, and forth could also play
at this game.

   - Larry