Re: gEDA-user: merge multi symbol components

[DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I don't really care whether scripting functionality is built in the
> tool or is not, as long as it seamlessly integrates with it. When the
> script modifies a design file the tool should update any views of it
> (I guess that's what you meant by "operate on the live data").

I agree - I don't care how it's implemented, I care how it *acts*.

In PCB, for example, you can call out to a separate program to fiddle
with your design, but to get it "live" you end up reloading the file,
which resets some of the GUI as if you had loaded a separate design.

> Another issue is what we consider "scripting". For me, scripting is
> only good for automating the flow, glueing existing functions
> together so that the user's productivity increases. This is in
> opposition to plumbing, adding features to the tool, which should be
> there in first place, because it decreases productivity.

Scripting, to me, means having some way of automating repetitive tasks
within an environment.  For gschem/pcb, this means (to me) being able
to, for example, iterate over the design and make repetitive changes
to chosen parts.  "Find all 13 mil holes and make their pads at least
40 mil diameter."  "Rename all D?? parts to CR??."  The core
functionality is there (changing pad sizes, renaming parts) it's the
user-specific automation that's lacking.

> On the gschem side I really like the idea of libgeda. IMHO everything
> that touches user's data should go there and be wrapped with a clean
> API. Tools like gschem, netlisters, importers etc should only issue
> commands/listen to libgeda.

Right, but there still needs to be something that the *user* interacts
with to automate repetitive tasks.  That "something" can certainly use
libgeda, but let's not expect people to have to write C programs with
libgeda that run outside of gschem, and let's not delude ourselves
into thinking that's "scripting".  That's *programming*.


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