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Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2015 15:32:33 +0200 (CEST)
From: Roland Lutz <rlutz AT hedmen DOT org>
To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
Subject: [geda-user] New experimental netlist features
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.11.1509031356150.13201@nimbus>
User-Agent: Alpine 2.11 (DEB 23 2013-08-11)
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Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com

Hi,

I added a few experimental features to the netlister, including buses and 
variable substitution.  The latest revision contains an example schematic 
"tests/netlist/mod_7seg.sch" which demonstrates these features.

You can clone the repository from

     git://github.com/rlutz/xorn.git  (branch "experimental")

or download a convenience tarball from:

     http://hedmen.org/xorn/xorn-netlist-experimental.tar.gz

In detail, the new features are:

- Components with a single pin can now have a "netname=" attribute which 
acts like a "net=" attribute on that pin.  This allows using the 
"netname=" attribute as a clean label on customizable power symbols.

- Analogously, I/O ports in subschematics can now be indicated using the 
"portname=" attribute instead of "refdes=".  If there are I/O ports for 
which there is no matching pin in the instantiating symbol, an error is 
reported.

- Components can now have bus pins.  This is currently only available by 
hacking the file (i.e., changing the next-to-last number in the pin line 
from "0" to "1").  The "pinnumber=" attribute on a pin and the "netname=" 
attribute on a bus are interpreted as a comma-separated list of pin 
ranges.  Pin ranges can be denoted by either ".." or ":"; when using the 
latter notation, the last pin isn't included in the list.  Optionally, the 
pin range can be given in brackets and have a common prefix.

   Examples: "4..7,14..11" -> 4 5 6 7 14 13 12 11
             "D[8:0]" -> D7 D6 D5 D4 D3 D2 D1 D0

Bus rippers still work the way they did before (i.e., not at all unless 
you set the appropriate attributes by hand).

- Subschematics can now have I/O busses.  I/O bus pins work analogously to 
normal bus pins but have a "pinlabel=" attribute instead of a "pinnumber=" 
attribute.  Inside the subschematic, you can either use a matching I/O 
port symbol with a bus pin or individual net port symbols.  Bus I/O ports 
currently only support the new "portname=" syntax.

- A subsheet symbol can have one ore more "subst=NAME=VALUE" attributes. 
Inside the subschematic, any occurrence of "$(NAME)" is replaced with 
"VALUE".  This only works for attribute retrieval from packages; in 
particular, it isn't possible to change slotting or subsheet source files 
this way.

Roland