Re: gEDA-user: Random thoughts on the future interface of PCB

[Peter Clifton <pcjc2@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 2010-12-09 at 03:26 +0100, kai-martin knaak wrote:

> 3) Early during the scripted printing affair, I discovered, 
> that almost all command line options described in the pcb 
> manual are obsolete. When I volunteered to fix this on the 
> ml, it was suggested to put the documentation directly in 
> the source like it is done for actions. This seemed like a 
> good idea, so I started hacking. Turned out that implicit 
> alphabetical sort like it is reasonable for actions, does 
> not quite fit for command lines. With so many options you'd 
> want some grouping for better readability. 
> I split my effort in two patches: Modification of the 
> comment collection script and the bulk of documenting 
> comments. The first patch got applied after I did some 
> nagging. So I went ahead and spent a couple of evenings 
> to write the documenting comments. First my patch was 
> ignored, again. After nagging and renagging I was told, 
> that the dev did not like the way I implemented explicit 
> ordering. Thus the second patch got rejected. 
> Result: The command line options section in the pcb manual 
> still sends users to completely wrong directions. No word 
> of warning.

It is a great shame that your efforts haven't made it into the project.
I hope that at least the content creation work can be salvaged, even if
the developer in question feels a desire to adjust the way ordering is
done. (I don't know who that was, but I guess there aren't many more
possibilities than I have fingers on a hand!)

> Long time result: I dedicate my free cycles to other open 
> source projects -- projects, where I can achieve more with 
> less fight and less frustration.

Your use and testing of PCB+GL has been much appreciated. It is only
through brave users trying these things (and giving feedback) that
things will get better.

-- 
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!)
Tel: +44 (0)1223 748328 - (Shared lab phone, ask for me)



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