Re: gEDA-user: PCB suggestion

[sdb@xxxxxxxxxx (Stuart Brorson)]

> > 2.  The biggest reason to not use XML is that we already have a
> > working file format with associated file reading and writing code.
> > Transitioning to XML is a major, architectural change to PCB.
> > Everybody talks about changing the program; almost nobody actually
> > implements the changes.
> 
> Does this mean, that if somebody would sit down and do this work, it 
> could well be accepted for pcb?
> 
> So everything boils down to the people coding for PCB do not want to 
> waste their time for a change, they see no benefit in? If this is the 
> case, I have no problem to accept is, as it is not really an argument 
> against XML, but only about these people implementing it. It should not 
> keep others from doing this job, if they think, it is important.

I am not a PCB developer, and I cannot speak for them.  I only dabble
with gEDA.  Someday I will hopefully have enough skills to hack PCB. 

I will note that it is a general property of F/OSS that the chances of
a change being implemented increase dramatically if one sits down and
writes the code oneself.  Otherwise, feature requests tend to be
ignored, or implemented months or years after the request is made.
Therefore, the folks desiring the XML file format might do best to
take it upon themselves to make the change, and then submit it to the
developers.  

Of course, the developers might then reject the change, but that's the
risk you take.

> > If I had my druthers for PCB, I'd rather see
> > developer effort used to upgrade the UI to GTK, rather than wasted on
> > migrating to an XML file format -- a change which would be invisible
> > to ordinary users.
> 
> I fully agree on this point. Changes of the file format should have a 
> much lower priority than e.g. this change.

Yeah,  and I'm planning on trying to do this someday.  However, I have
a long learning curve to climb before I have the knowledge and skills
to do it.   :-(

Stuart