Re: gEDA-user: fritzing

[Joerg <joergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Doty wrote:
> On May 9, 2009, at 2:51 PM, Joerg wrote:
> 
>> Stefan Salewski wrote:
>>> On Fri, 2009-05-08 at 17:13 -0700, Joerg wrote:
>>>
>>>> IMHO that is fundamentally wrong. How many successful race car  
>>>> drivers
>>>> these days do you think can disassemble and re-assemble a Ferrari  
>>>> engine
>>>> _and_ tune it properly?
>>>>
>>> What I heard about Michael Schumacher was that his strength was  
>>> more his
>>> technical understanding about the car, which makes it possible to
>>> discuss with the tech team to improve the cat, than his driving  
>>> skills.
>>>
>> Sure they know the technology, just like a pilot must know the inner
>> workings of a jet engine or like I know how C and assembler is  
>> written.
>> But that does not mean those people can perform the work of an expert
>> mechanic or engineer in those fields.
> 
> The best can. When Yeager was test flying the Mig-15, he wired the  
> pyros on the ejection seat himself.
> 

Wiring pyros is not designing an ejection seat.


>> In fact most can't, and they don't
>> have to.
> 
> Just because most people are content with mediocrity does not mean we  
> should cater to their laziness. And note that this kind of laziness  
> makes their job harder: master the tools, and the computer becomes an  
> enormously more powerful device in your hands.
> 

Every sector of a trade has their strengths and weaknesses. Or should I 
consider engineers who can't design high voltage ICs, RF amps or fix EMC 
problems in their sleep "mediocre" just because I can do those things? I 
would never dare to say that, because it's not true. They just have 
other specialties.


>>
>>>> I know several fine electronics engineers who are not at all  
>>>> versed in
>>>> fixing a PC, let alone install an OS. In fact, this is the  
>>>> majority of
>>>> top notch engineers that I know.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> It's hard for me to imagine an engineer who can not install an OS,  
>>> when
>>> so many 12 years old school boys can do it. I can imagine other "top
>>> notch" people, like (financial) managers, artists, maybe  
>>> mathematicians
>>> -- but that is not out target group.
>>>
>> Maybe hard to imagine for you but that how life is :-)
> 
> Nope. Life for the first rate is studying a new thing every day,  
> stretching yourself, learning how to exploit different methodologies  
> and points of view.
> 
> Von Neummann once recommended a specific vacuum tube to the engineers  
> working on the early computers. He understood the issues and knew  
> that this specific new tube had worth characteristics. That's first  
> rate.
> 
>>
>>> Of course gEDA for Windows would mean more users. But would those
>>> additional user contribute something to the project?
>>>
>> Oh yes. Without feedback from lots of folks who do engineering and CAD
>> for decades you cannot create a good CAD tool.
> 
> Unless you walk in the developers' shoes, you cannot give truly  
> effective feedback. And developers who never walk in users' shoes  
> will never really understand what they need. Fundamentally, gEDA is  
> better because we don't have that inefficient kind of division of labor.
> 

Not so. For example, in medical electronics we receive the most valuable 
feedback from the best cardiologists in the country, guys I'd trust 100% 
  if my time on the table came. Yet most don't have the foggiest idea 
how electronics work. And that's perfectly ok.

>>
>>> KiCAD was available from the beginning for Windows. Based on your  
>>> logic
>>> the development of KiCad should be very fast, because of all these  
>>> "top
>>> notch engineers" who can use it and who can contribute. ...
>>
>> It has improved trmendously over the last three years.
>>
>>
>>>                                                      ... I do not  
>>> know
>>> much about KiCAD, but it seems to be not too bad, and I know some  
>>> people
>>> who used it on Windows. ...
>>
>> IMHO it's at a more useful stage right now than gEDA. No flames  
>> please,
>> that's just my personal opinion, as someone who's done CAD quite
>> extensively for over 20 years. Kicad is a very good CAD program,  
>> but has
>> some quirks left.
> 
> They won't get fixed by complaining.
> 

Mentioning and explaining details of a bug is not complaining. Papering 
over stuff like that is what keeps SW in the nerd corner.

>>
>>>            .. But most development seems to be still done by
>>> the original author.
>>>
>> Yes, and therefore even more amazing. But I never understood why the
>> Charras team and the gEDA team don't join forces. Very good things  
>> could
>> come out of that.
> 
> We have completely different and fundamentally incompatible visions.  
> That doesn't mean we can't respect each other, ...


Fully agree.


>     ... but I think joining forces is crazy.
> 

Don't agree :-)

-- 
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

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