Re: gEDA-user: PCB: Stale rat's nest?

[Vanessa Dannenberg <vanessadannenberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Friday 03 March 2006 08:59, Dan McMahill wrote:

> I think what we need is early on in the documentation to have a quick
> and to the point definition of terms.  Unfortunately, there is not an
> industry standard among cad tools so such a section (I'm thinking a page
> or less) would be a big help.  For example, what we call a "footprint"
> in PCB is a "pattern" or a "stencil" in a couple of other tools.
>
> -Dan

I don't mean to push Eagle, but it too shows this sort of variance. 

* Package:   Generic collection of pads/holes and silk on the board - 8 pads 
with 100 mil pad spacing and 300 mil row spacing, three pads in a triangle 
pattern with 100 mil pad spacing and a tabbed circle around the group...

* Symbol:   Generic collection of lines and pin connections - a box with 8 
generic pins, a circle with three lines and an arrow...

* Device:  Final mating of the two concepts, the actual unit used to populate 
a schematic diagram and the associated board - DIL 555 timer, TO-18 2N2222 
transistor...

It's not such a big deal for me now that I know what a slot is and what refdes 
means, but what about the next noob who tries to use gEDA?

Since there's at least one program that uses more common words, I think it 
wouldn't be unreasonable to expect gEDA to eventually follow suit.  A more 
understandable interface means more users, and more users (ideally) means 
more bug reports and feedback.

-- 
"Sometimes paranoia can be helpful. Usually it
isn't, and when you learn that, life improves."
Vanessa Dannenberg