Re: gEDA-user: feature propriety. was Re: gEDA just hit SlashDotOrg

[DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> A rule-based thing sounds tricky. I think most would be happy with a  
> simple list.

Well, the rules would be in the plug-in, not geda.  Geda says "what
values work here?" and gets a list.  Gsch2pcb tries to fill in blanks
by requesting defaults, and complains if it can't get one.  How all
that happens, is undefined.

In my case, what I do is try to see how many parts in my database have
the right attributes.  If the answer is zero, fail.  If it's one, use
that one.  If it's more than one, the perl script picks one based on
some heuristics I wrote.

But for gschem, imagine if you could "ee" a symbol, select
"footprint", and have it be multiple choice?  I mean, the database
(somehow) knows which footprint that device is available in... no
point letting you fill in TQFP44 for an ethernet jack.

Now, suppose you had a capacitor.  Lots of footprints for those.  Now
pick 0.1uF, there are fewer footprint options.  Choose Kemet, you're
down to three options.  Choose 10v (of the four voltage options you
now have ;) and you're down to one.  Don't like those footprints?
Erase some of the other attributes, select the footprint you want, and
see what options you have for the erased ones.  Hmmm, maybe you need
to choose a 16v instead.

I get this idea from the digikey web page - the way they let you drill
down through part attributes until you get a small enough list to pick
one of them.


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