Re: gEDA-user: footprint creation war

[Randall Nortman <geda-lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Mar 22, 2006 at 04:47:13PM -0500, Phil Taylor wrote:
> 
> Randall,
> 
> I was talking about file type footprints.  Are you using python to make m4
> scripts or to make file-type footprints?

Sorry, I wasn't clear, I meant that I first tried m4, and then gave up
on it and switched to using python to create file-type footprints.  In
principle, I essentially replaced m4 with python, though the mechanics
of it are a bit different.  (I run the python scripts manually to
produce file-type footprints, instead of the m4 script output going
straight into the pcb file.)  With a little hacking, it would be
possible to use python in the same way m4 is currently used, though I
don't see a whole lot of benefit to it.


> Randall Nortman <geda-lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > Hear, hear!  I found it very inconvenient to try to make footprints
> > graphically.  But after struggling with using m4 macros to do it, I
> > ultimately just made myself a python library that gives me a few
> > functions that make it easy to generate most footprints
> > programmatically.  I posted the scripts here a while back, though
> > there doesn't seem to have been much interest.
> > 
> > Whether you do it programmatically or by hand in a text editor, it
> > seems far more reliable (in terms of precision) than drawing them, and
> > not really any slower.  In fact, if you are working from a