Re: gEDA-user: Parts DB API

[Peter Clifton <pcjc2@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 2007-12-19 at 09:34 -0500, DJ Delorie wrote:
> > > pcb has a similar problem - there's nothing in the file format that
> > > says "footprint name goes here".  However, I'm thinking we can just
> > > store that in an attribute.
> > 
> > It would then become ambiguous -- not to mention removing backward
> > compatibility -- unless the database system was an optional add-on
> > to another symbol-selection system.  I'd like to blend the database
> > system in seemlessly if at all possible.
> 
> Are you talking about pcb or gschem?  pcb doesn't have *any* field for
> the footprint name.  We've been hacking it into "description" but it's
> already ambiguous, since there's no path information there.  If we
> ever want to go beyond our one-level footprint "database" we need
> something more robust for storing the footprint's origin.
> 
> I already think gsch2pcb should be using pcb attributes in its
> namespace to store its information about footprints, not the
> description field.

This is true.. many people are bitten by gsch2pcb removing things it
shouldn't.

Changing does present an interesting issue though.. we have to support
both ways for updating (possibly indefinitely), as if no special
attributes are found, the schematic might have been created by an old
gsch2pcb - and we need to revert to looking at the description field.

I'd not suggest investing any time in gsch2pcb until it is re-written to
use PCB actions to do its work though.

-- 
Peter Clifton

Electrical Engineering Division,
Engineering Department,
University of Cambridge,
9, JJ Thomson Avenue,
Cambridge
CB3 0FA

Tel: +44 (0)7729 980173 - (No signal in the lab!)



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