Re: gEDA-user: PCB property tweak dialog [was PCB Ground Plane - Autowiring?]

[Ethan Swint <eswint.ramu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Since PCB doesn't store its internal structures in a way which directly
> maps the file-format (sensible), handing off to a text-editor would
> require the equivalent of saving the board contents to a file (or memory
> buffer), then editing that.
>   
OK, then the tree representation may not fit with PCB.  Let's work with 
what's already in memory.
> The problem then comes at having to re-parse (possibly) the whole file
> each time the user edits it (or wants to update their board on screen).
> Then what happens if the user types a syntax error?
>   
Same thing as what happens when a user types a syntax error in an 
external text editor, only in this case, user can always undo the 
specific action that led to that error.  (assuming one types text in the 
file format)

> I'll pretty much only be happy if $EDITOR is gvim, and I know others
> would feel the same about emacs, or "n" other editors. We ought not to
> try and reinvent those wheels inside PCB.
>   
IMHO, this particular wheel has yet to be invented - I just want to be 
able to get at both the graphical and numerical/data representation of 
circuit board layout data from within one editor.  Don't think of it as 
a "Text Editor" vs "GUI," think of it as one of those widgets that lets 
you turn a knob or set the value directly, like when one is trying to 
pick a color from a color wheel in gimp or Inkscape.  PCB's current 
graphical output is the knob, we're just missing the data entry box. 
> IMO, the way this ought to be done, is similar to how my own favourite
> editor, GVIM works.. If you modify the file outside the running program,
> when you switch back... it notices - and asks if you want to reload.
> Your flow would then be "save", "switch apps", "respond to prompt to
> reload".
>
> We could / probably should prompt to warn if there are unsaved changes
> on the board, but the file has changed on disk. If we were _really_
> smart, we might make the reload step part of the undo stack. 
>
>   
1) One still wouldn't be able to undo individual changes from the 
external editor - only accept or reject the whole batch. 
2) It still leaves the question data coherency - which editor has the 
desired changes, maybe both editors have desired changes that need to be 
merged...

> I'd personally suggest that we get the GUI up to the point where you can
> do what you want directly, in preference to investing lots of time to
> provide a bad GUI (text editing) to a relatively unfriendly file-format.
>   
One thing that would be handy (and may be a good starting point for me) 
is the align left/center/right, top/center/bottom, even space between 
elements, even centers between elements, etc.   This has already been 
done in most (all?) graphics programs I've worked with, but those don't 
parse PCB...


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