Re: gEDA-user: SPICE/gEDA going to the LDP . . .

[sdb@cloud9.net (Stuart Brorson)]

> 
> On Thursday 20 May 2004 09:51 pm, Stuart Brorson wrote:
> > Happy reading, and I look forward to your comments,
> 
> Why do you promote LT-Spice?  It's a closed source rip of spice.  
> Closed source "free" software is a major threat to real free 
> software.

The HOWTO is about doing SPICE simulations on Linux.  LTSpice is a
great SPICE simulator, it is much more stable & complete than
[ng|tcl]spice, and it runs on Linux. 

My focus is getting the job done, not necessarily promoting GPLed
software, or the FSF's agenda.  I do agree with the FSF's principles &
goals, but that consideration is secondary to getting the job done.

> I suppose it would be too much to suggest that Gnucap does 
> belong there.

You have an excellent point:  I should also include Gnucap.

When I originally started looking into the area of SPICE on Linux, I
was led to believe that Gnucap was something slightly different from
SPICE.  My interest at the time was in simulating circuits
incorporating SPICE models from various vendors -- e.g. Analog
Devices, National, etc.  I didn't want to play around with something
non-standard 'cause I was having enough trouble getting *spice to work
properly.  Therefore I didn't try Gnucap, and my understanding of the
free SPICE arena was shaped by that experience.

Moving forward, I should probably include a blurb about Gnucap in the
HOWTO.  Are you willing to write one or two pages describing how to
install and run Gnucap?  I'd of course stick you in as a contributor.

Alternatively, I will investigate Gnucap myself & write the blurb.
This might take a long time -- e.g. months -- because time is
currently constrained.  But it is now on the "to do" list.

Thanks for reminding me to include Gnucap.

Stuart