gEDA-user: request for newbie help

[jim <jim@xxxxxxxx>]

   i've tried to find what i want in the docs without 
luck. (i've read eric raymond's and rick moen's notes 
re asking questions.) 

my background: 
   i've worked as an electronic bench tech and have 
held several different kinds of jobs in the "computer" 
industry (sys adm, programmer/analyst, documenter for 
developer products (APIs and such) and data centers, 
taught intros to C, perl, python, and other languages). 

product and platform 
   i've got geda 1.6.1.2NNNN on ubuntu linux 10.04 
(laptop) and dragged three simple components with 
connections into a circuit (seems the "wires" are 
properly connected), a battery, a potentiometer, and 
a voltmeter: battery + to top of pot, bottom of pot 
to battery -, voltmeter between wiper and bottom of 
pot. 

problem as i see it 
   what i want to do is to activate the circuit by 
setting the battery to some voltage value and the pot 
to some resistance value and read the voltage 
difference between the wiper and the bottom of the 
pot. here are points of detail: 
* it's possible the software does not allow such 
emulation. does it? 
* i cannot find a tutorial that presents something 
close enough that i can infer out of it. 
* i cannot make sense of some of the important terms 
in the docs that i've found (extants, attributes...). 
* the help menu shows choices for gEDA docs, but no 
local help files appear (i guessed that maybe the 
choice activated my browser, but no). 
* the geda web site ( http://geda.seul.org ) mentions 
ways to contribute but without apparent links that 
let me access contributors (i believe i can help with 
user docs and possibly be a reasonably useful tester). 

first-cut attempt to communicate 
   after some effort i've found this (and other) 
mailing list. i'm trying this list first before 
disturbing the flow of the developer's list (which 
i'm willing to do, but after reality checking for 
community expectations and good manners). 

   if anyone can help me with the above points i'll 
be grateful. 
thanks, 
jim 




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