Re: gEDA: Oregano

[Al Davis <ad83@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sunday 08 January 2006 05:07 pm, Carlos Nieves Ónega wrote:
> I have seen in the oregano webpage that they are going to
> rewrite the project. They seem to be evaluating python, Mono,
> C++,... Oregano and geda are really very similar. Maybe
> oregano is more user friendly if you only want to do a
> simulation. That is something to be improved in geda.
> I think this is a waste of efforts: both projects want to do
> the same thing and the only difference is that one is more
> user friendly. Why don't try to make the more powerful
> program (geda, in my opinion) more user friendly?
>
> I suppose all kind of developers are welcome to geda, so I
> wonder if someone know any oregano developer. Maybe we could
> merge both projects...

Actually, oregano has existed for a long time.  The original 
authors moved on long ago, before ng-spice even existed, before 
gnucap (then known as ACS) did much.

The current authors have updated it to support the current free 
simulators (gnucap and ng-spice).  I am not aware of much else.  
I think the reason for the gap was the original author knew 
about gEDA, and expected it to fill the need better than he 
could.  Then the current maintainers revived it because gEDA is 
not a good choice for their goal, which is for beginners.  
Their web site prominently links to gEDA.

As far as merging the projects ...  I don't think that will 
work.  I do believe that if gEDA becomes suitable for their 
users, they will move on to something else.  I also believe 
that this kind of apparent duplication is healthy.  The two 
groups should coordinate on things like libraries and migration 
paths, and agree to share code.

As to the comment that they are going to rewrite the project ...  
I think if gEDA becomes beginner friendly they won't, and will 
join us and do something else that is more important instead.  
But the gEDA people need to make it more beginner friendly.

Having lots of people hack on a single project is not very 
productive.  Eric Raymond wrote about "the Cathedral and the 
Bazaar".  He left out another development model.  Let me call 
it "the street".  We don't want the street.

Another apparent duplication --- ngspice and gnucap --- these 
projects really need to work together.  Things were going 
pretty good a few years ago.  I think the current diversion is 
mostly the fault of my employment situation, which has had some 
consequences very different from what I intended, and has hurt 
both projects.