Re: gEDA-user: Parts DB API

[Levente <leventelist@xxxxxxxxx>]

DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
>> For the time being, however, I don't see any reason not to stick to
>> using some sort of external helper programs for actually accessing
>> the database, as long as we can get the UI and basic Scheme API
>> nailed down.
> 
> I've argued in the past that gattrib should be responsible for
> attributes, not gschem.

Yes and no. Gatrib is good to add/change attributes *after* you have a
schematic design. It is a nice tool, but I think gschem too must be capable to add
attributes. That should be the primary attribute adder tool.

> And, there's no reason why the attributes need to be in the schematic!
> We can store them in the BOM.  There's a pleasing symmetry to it:
> 
> gschem uses *.sym files to make *.sch
> gattrib uses db files to make *.bom
> pcb uses *.fp files to make *.pcb
> 
> The only interesting change is to gsch2pcb, which needs to read a
> *.bom file in addition to the schematics.

IMHO this just adds complexity. What we need is an abstract layer on the
top of symbols, not between schematic and pcb, in a sense when you producing
pcbs, not simulating a model.

>> > The symbol files should be as light as possible, and we should make them
>> > heavy by adding information coming from the database.
>> 
>> Totally agree.
> 
> I agree symbols should be as light as possible, but "adding to them"
> isn't a requirement - we can store them in the BOM.  If we store the
> attributes there then we also have a clue about which attributes came
> from which programs, and the bom can store more than just a name/value
> pair - it can store an "origin" value (how the value got chosen), for
> example.

That is true. But why do we need this? Why should pcb know that the attribute
"value=LM2596" came from a database, or from manual input, script generated?



-- 
Levente
http://web.interware.hu/lekovacs



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