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Re: gEDA-user: personal component library frustration-HELP/suggestions please?



Hi John,

On Tue, Aug 16, 2011 at 10:07 PM, John Hudak <jjhudak@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>   Thank you Stephen.
>   When you say 'others rely on them'..Why do they rely on them?  I get
>   the feeling that there is some feature or property that some ppl find
>   important enough to use them (over the other libraries).

M4 footprints are macros - each one describes a family of footprints.
For example one M4 footprint can describe a whole family of footprints
such as the DIP family.  When the macro is called you just specify how
many pins - so calling the macro with value 8 gives you an 8 pin DIP
package, calling it with 14 gives you a 14 pin DIP package etc.

M4 is not essential - it's still possible to manually belt out DIP8,
DIP14, DIP16, etc instead.

>   My first attempt at creating symbols is with DJboxsym.  It was
>   successful but the second two bullet points at the website made for
>   more questions without answers that could possibly throw up roadblocks
>   further down the road:
>   1. symbols are in my "compromise' format......ummmm HOW compromised?
>   What is compromised?

I don't know what compromise DJ is referring to.  It doesn't matter
though - DJ has defined a simple text format that DJboxsym converts
into a symbol.  Once it has been converted to a symbol you can work
with it just like any other symbol - it is not 'compromised' in any
way.

>   2. No DRC support (use my sym2/csv2sym programs for that).  What the
>   heck is DRC (not spelled out anywhere - first rule in writing a
>   document that I learned in grade school was ALWAYS spell out an acronym
>   the first time it is used), and now I need another special program that
>   does what??? And how does it alter the route to attaining my goal??

DRC = Design Rule Check.
For a schematic typical DRCs include checks for unconnected pins and
for shorted nets (eg GND shorted to VCC)
Computerised DRC is not essential but rather a useful aid.  The old
school (pen & paper) way to achieve DRC is to have another engineer
look through a print out of your schematic and check for errors.  DRC
programs aid this task by automatically detecting some simple but
common mistakes and drawing your attention to them.

>   As an enduser, I personally don't care if it is written in perl,
>   python, pascal, smalltalk, lisp, algol68 or Cray Fortran.  As a
>   developer, it may be important.
>   As a result, thinking that there is something 'non-native' in this
>   approach, I looked for others.
>   BTW, the link does not work - Wireshark informs me that the route is
>   established but does not respond..time out error.

You can use a cached copy:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://vivara.net/cgi-bin/djboxsym.cgi

Stephen Ecob
Silicon On Inspiration
Sydney Australia
www.sioi.com.au


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