Re: gEDA-user: Thoughts using gschem

[John Doty <jpd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Jun 25, 2007, at 4:30 PM, Sean D'Epagnier wrote:

> ...
>
>>
>> I generally end up making my own copies of symbols and putting them
>> in a project-specific library. Then edit their attributes to match
>> the project's needs. I've done this when using commercial EDA tools
>> as well. I think its inevitable that some of the attributes in a
>> library symbol are likely to be wrong for any specific project.
>>
>
> I understand why you would do this, but what I am thinking of would  
> eliminate
> this problem.  You would be able to delete the embedded attributes  
> if desired,
> just the object would start with them by default.  Wouldn't this  
> simplify
> things as well?

It doesn't solve most of the problems:

1. When I make a change in a symbol, I most often want that change to  
propagate to *all* instances of that symbol in a project. A  
collection of project symbols makes this easy: Hs takes me into the  
symbol, where I can make any change I want.

2. Once I start on a project, I want my symbols under the project's  
revision control, not gEDA's, so that nobody can break my project by  
"fixing" a symbol.

It seems to me that your approach could be accommodated by fixing Hs  
so that it can go down into an embedded symbol. Embed your symbol,  
edit it as you please. No incompatible changes required to the software.

On the other hand, what *I'd* really like is explicit support for the  
"project symbol library" concept. Specify it in gafrc. When you place  
a symbol from the regular library, a copy should be automagically  
placed in the project library. Symbols in the project library should  
have priority without "duplicate symbol" warnings. The project  
library should be first in the component dialog's list.

>
>
>>>
>>> Is there any way to select a connection and highlight or otherwise
>>> make
>>> clear exactly what it is connected to?
>>
>> Not in gschem: it doesn't completely understand nets.
>>
>
> Ok, but it has all the information it needs to do it right?

Not really. I suppose it could do it correctly within a page. When a  
connection is outside the page gschem doesn't have the information.  
There may not even be a unique right answer, since a page may be  
reused within a hierarchical design or reused between different flat  
designs. Software that gets the trivial cases right and the difficult  
cases wrong tends to drive users crazy ;-)

John Doty              Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd.
http://www.noqsi.com/
jpd@xxxxxxxxx




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