Re: gEDA-user: I am such a troll for posting to slashdot

[Peter Clifton <pcjc2@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 2010-02-27 at 00:44 -0500, Ales Hvezda wrote:
> http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1564716&cid=31289534
> 
> Let me be the first to apologize. :-)  Although, a couple people have
> posted that gEDA's documentation lacks in places.  
> 
> Any volunteers for: "Make a beginners interface that looks Eagle-ish".

Just don't make it _feel_ like Eagle.. I've tried it, and hated it! All
those people I've met who use Eagle use it for the parts-library, and
when questioned - have admitted that the UI is quirky.

Perhaps someone pro-active could clone the Arduino design in gEDA
format?

I wonder if a question we forgot to ask is simply "are these people
using Linux"? I know gEDA can and does work on Windows, but we don't
really target that user-base, and don't expend much effort testing and
ironing out the Win32 bugs.

I'm not a big fan of systems which need lots of documentation to get
started. It is important for turning new users into power-users, but
lets face it, no-one is going to read through much more than a couple of
pages before giving up if they can't see an end in sight.

More marketing on our part would perhaps help - show people pictures or
videos of designs and schematics in progress, show them what the tools
_can_ achieve - and it might generate interest.

I know it is different, but when looking for CFD/FEA software to solve a
problem, I've mostly been interested to see examples of what kind of
problem the software can solve - visually. Yes, I could read the 100
page manual - but that comes after I've got a decent feel for the fact
that the software can do what I want.


-- 
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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