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Subject: Re: [geda-user] The new to do
From: John Doty <jpd AT noqsi DOT com>
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Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2015 19:31:44 -0600
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On Jul 15, 2015, at 6:24 PM, DJ Delorie <dj AT delorie DOT com> wrote:

> 
>> I don't want to enter a world where the workflow is a direct flow
>> from gschem to pcb. That would be very inflexible. I also don't see
>> how it would really be saving anytime in coding.
> 
> That is not the case, has never been the case, and nobody is
> suggesting that it be the case.  PCB goes through the netlister like
> everyone else, and none of the options we've discussed prevent you
> from doing things a different way if you want.
> 
> If it *really* bothers you, it's all open source - make a copy for
> yourself and don't update, and you don't have to worry about anything
> changing any more.

How can you do collaborative work that way? I reject the idea that gEDA is only for hermits.

> 
> What we *would* like to do is expand the tools to allow a wider range
> of things to be possible, without stopping the old things from working

How do you keep the documentation and menus simple? Every unnecessary feature makes it harder for the user to discover and employ the necessary ones (been there with Viewlogic).

How do you avoid interaction between features? Integration is the enemy here, but the toolkit approach is a great way to encourage factoring.

> or being needlessly complex.  The opposition to *any* change has made
> this more difficult than it should be.

No, it *should* be difficult. Geda-gaf is a mature, stable, useful toolkit. Ill-considered change is bad. Adding features to software is like adding mass to aircraft: not always bad, but there’d better be very strong justification.

> 
> PCB's importer is an example of that.  We improved the existing tools
> to implement a significant convenience feature, and made it easy for
> the user to use.  This doesn't prevent you from using the old gsc2pcb
> if you want.
> 

But that itself reflects pcb’s inflexibility. If you could import netlists from 20 other tools, you’d want those interfaces factored out, I think. I certainly would.

John Doty              Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd.
http://www.noqsi.com/
jpd AT noqsi DOT com