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Subject: Re: [geda-user] New experimental netlist features
From: John Doty <jpd AT noqsi DOT com>
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Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2015 08:35:07 -0600
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On Sep 5, 2015, at 3:01 PM, Vladimir Zhbanov (vzhbanov AT gmail DOT com) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com] <geda-user AT delorie DOT com> wrote:

> On Sat, Sep 05, 2015 at 03:30:47PM -0400, DJ Delorie wrote:
>> 
>>> No, gEDA has to emphasize its strengths to avoid losing to KiCAD.
>> 
>> gEDA has already lost to KiCad.
> 
> I've read a post of a user trying hard to find appropriate open-source
> solution for his work, and he was frustrated that KiCAD's schematic
> capture program is not gschem, and that gEDA's pcb is not KiCAD's
> pcbnew.
> 

Hmm, the KiCad docs suggest there is an internal netlist file format, although I can’t find any documentation on the format itself. Does anyone know where I could find out about this? Gnetlist backends for export to layout are usually pretty easy if you’re familiar with the backend API, which I certainly am.

> It's just an opinion. Tastes may vary.
> 
> Cheers,
>  Vladimir
> 
> P.S. Sorry, I cannot but tell you that such your expressions are like
> John Doty's ones you've cursed before. They discourage users from
> looking at the project, and developers from working on it.
> 
> P.P.S. I'm emerging here as an opponent to you, Roland, John Doty,
> Kay-Martin and all others, who discourages users from trying to use new
> Scheme script possibilities Peter Brett have added to the project, even
> looking at them.

I have no wish to discourage Scheme scripting, and I’m impressed by your leadership in this area. At the same time, I’ve seen that even skilled programmers find Scheme forbidding. I do not understand this: if an over-the-hill astrophysicist like me can program in it, why can’t others? But, that’s how it is, and I think we need an alternative. Not a replacement, but a parallel path. I’m also very impressed with what Roland Lutz has created: a complete parallel to gnetlist, but based on Python rather than Scheme. Now, we have more freedom.

> I begin to get tired and understand now, why Peter has
> no motivation.

Peter did an enormous amount of refactoring and reorganization, a valuable and thankless job.

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