On Dec 26, 2017, at 8:40 AM, Nicklas Karlsson (nicklas DOT karlsson17 AT gmail DOT com) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com] <geda-user AT delorie DOT com> wrote:

On = Tue, 26 Dec 2017 13:20:09 +0100 (CET)
karl AT aspodata DOT se = wrote:

= Why must one have a pinnumber attribute for each pin i a sym file:
http://wiki.geda-project.org/geda:master_attributes_list#pinnum= ber

Wouldn't it suffice to have pinseq = and pinlabel ?

I think = pinlabel would suffice.

Except that there=E2=80=99s not, at present, a = requirement that pinlabel attributes are unique, or even present in = general. So, there would be large problems with existing symbol = libraries.

and if I got it correct in = cschem they use some kind of mapping mechanism for this so it's not part = of the symbol.

Wouldn't it be useful to allow to have just a function = (pinlabel)
attached to the pin without knowing which = pinnumber it will end up on ?

Yes it would if there is a mapping mechanism.

The = essential problem is that (refdes,pinnumber) is the fundamental = identifier of connections in gnetlist/lepton-netlist. If you change = this, you need some way to be backward compatible, or change all of the = back ends.

We have a mapping = mechanism: the slotting mechanism. You can use it for more than = slotting, but it=E2=80=99s not so flexible that it covers all cases, and = it uses the already overloaded pinseq attribute.

I think I only use pinlabel fo hierachical = drawings. It's hard to distinguish between two pins with same label and = different pin numbers. The visible label is essentially a rather good = identifier for pin since schematics are read by humans.

Pinlabel as default identifier and pinnumber for the unusual = case then there is a need to distinguish between pins with same label = might be useful but I do not know about any case.

E.g. dc/dc converters = with single output usually have four pins
+/-Vin and = +/-Vout in all sorts of packages where the pinnumber (from
the datasheet) can be anything but 1,2,3,4, but their pin = names are
+/-Vin/Vout. So, it would be nice if one could = map sym -> fp with
just the "pinlabel" (gschem) -> = pin "Name" (pcb). But pcb doesn't seem
to support that = idea.

Agree.

I=E2=80=99d = love to be able to create generic, parameterized schematics: why should = I need more than one Sallen-Key schematic? Why should I need to = duplicate it four times on a page to get a bank of four using a quad = amp?