Re: gEDA-user: Life and death for gEDA: portability...

[Terry Porter <techman@d2.net.au>]

On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 07:03:00 -0500
Dan McMahill <dan@mcmahill.net> wrote:

> 
> couldn't resist this one...
> 
> On Sat, Dec 27, 2003 at 01:04:18PM -0500, Bill Cox wrote:
>  
> > The dependence on various packages, particularly guile and it's friends, 
> > could easily doom this whole effort.  Imagine a random IT guy in a 
> > medium sized company has been asked to install gEDA on 100 Linux 
> > workstations.  What does he do?  So far as I've seen, a correct response 
> > on this guy's part is to panic, and perhaps put together a resume.
> 
> well, my guess is its actually not too bad...  I'm not a linux user, but
> I am a gEDA user. 

<snip>

> I also have to say that the number of bugs I've been bitten by in gEDA 
> have been quite low compared to certain very expensive CAD tools and
> some in house CAD tools (not from my current employer) I've used in the
> past.  I've seen things in these commercial tools (not naming names here)
> like netlists which don't match the schematics which generated them,
> synthesis tools which ignore some of the constraints given, simulators
> which forget to initialize themselves at the first time step, schematic
> capture tools with no undo feature (no I'm not kidding), etc.  So I think
> this all actually bodes quite well for gEDA.
> 
> -Dan

Another very informative post!

Dan, your breadth of experience bodes really well for PCB I think, I'm using your
latest release right now and it's as smooth as silk, just like Gaf!

Planing an article on GPL vs Freeware PCB design, I downloaded Protel Autotrax, the only non Gaf 
"free" uncrippled pcb layout package I'm aware of.

From the Autotrax Eula "This EULA grants User the non-exclusive right to: install and use the Freeware upon a single computer. In no event, however, shall User be permitted to (a) use the freeware on a networked basis". Well thats a good start!

I used to use Autotrax a *long* time ago, before moving to Pads, then the Protel schema/pcb
software that ran under Windows, and imitated a turtle speed wise as you have mentioned.

So I ran Autotrax on my Linux box under Dosemu, worked fine, Dosemu that is ...

What a blast from the past, Autotrax which is still proffered on the Usenet EDA design groups
is truly prehistoric compared to Gaf! Why people hang onto DOS or Windows to run this ancient stuff
when Gaf and PCB are available for Free is a continuing source of amazement to me.

Thanks for all the work that you have done on PCB, and thanks to the other developers, ie
 DJ Delorie..

Merry new year to all :)

(Bill you have been the catalyst for some interesting emails on the list this Xmas :)

-- 
Kind Regards
Terry
* See my Gnu/Linux EDA webpage at : http://milkstone.d2.net.au/             
* Free Software provided by GNU; http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html