Re: gEDA-user: A suggestion about the stuff on gedasymbols

["C P Tarun" <tcpip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Gedasymbols is primarily a contributor place, not a replacement for
> the shipped libraries.  Symbols which have proven themselves, and are
> popular, should be migrated from gedasymbols to the official
> libraries.

In any case I'll elaborate what I was thinking.

I was thinking that open-source components are like open-source
software, and we can pick up a repository and use its components,
with a "caveat emptor". The danger of picking up a buggy symbol
or footprint is not reduced or increased by my approach compared
to the current pick-one-at-a-time interface. My approach just
makes it easier for a user to download all the components in one
shot and make them all accessible to gschem and pcb. The
"caveat emptor" will remain. Today, even the downloading
the elements takes time and effort.

I was thinking we could do the following:

1.  We first discuss and freeze on a directory structure. Democracy
   will slow things down, but I am sure we can arrive at a "library
   structure" for scripts, symbols, and footprints.... it won't be an
   NP-complete process.

2.  After that, we ask all contributors to create this dir-tree structure
   in their own CVS areas on the site. This way, we all know which of
   the elements from, say, John's CVS area are meant for which library
   category.

3.  A small script runs once a night and picks up element files from
   each contributor's CVS area, and copies to the corresponding
   locations in an "aggregated libraries" area. This script can also
   create tar.gz of the aggregated libraries, for easy download.

4.  Name conflict: whenever there is a name conflict, the aggregating
   script can append the contributor's name to the original element
   filename to create a new filename. Simplistic, but the recipient of
   the final library can then look through the various versions of the
   part and decide to keep one. At that point, he renames that file
   from "R-0207-10mm-Chandra_Tarun" to "R-0207-10mm". He can
   probably leave all the alternate "R-0207-10mm*" files as they are,
   with the author names tagged, for future reference.

> I'm trying to make it as easy as possible for people to contribute
> symbols and footprints.  Thus, adding more restrictions on how things
> are contributed goes against my purposes.

I thought it would be nice to make it easy for a user to use the elements,
without sacrificing the ease for the contributor.

> The current system (to each their own) doesn't require any work on my
> part, and scales well.  Trying to organize the whole thing would not
> be trivial.  Such efforts are better spent on the official libraries.

I feel that once the hierarchy of directories is decided for the official
libraries, the same can be applied here too. And once decided, the
entire thing can run without any manual work from your side.

> Combining them that way would lose attribution, unless I modified the
> files somehow to include it.  We really want feedback to go to the
> authors, so they can track the quality of their contributions.  Such
> history is useful when trying to merge them into official libraries.

The aggregation script can automatically add a comment into each
element file, giving the full name of the contributor. Even an email
address and other details could be added this way, if each contributor
is asked to keep a small file in the top dir of his CVS area with a
few lines of comments. This small file will be picked up verbatim and
added into each element file that he contributes. This will be done
automatically by the aggregator script.

Tarun
--


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