Re: gEDA-user: Reinventing the wheel

[Colin D Bennett <colin@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 17 May 2011 22:30:27 -0400
DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > BTW, what are the show cases for geda/pcb?
> 
> There's a list on gpleda.org:
> 
> http://geda.seul.org/wiki/geda:links

First, let's be clear that popularity is no indication of usefulness or
goodness of something.

But, if a product is less widely-chosen, perhaps there is something
that can be done to improve the learning curve for new users... e.g., I
was frustrated with gEDA when I first started using it, and thought
KiCAD looked easy to use and cool.  But I found that I didn't like the
feel of KiCAD (Wxwidgets was probably part of the problem...), and
eventually figured out the tricks needed to make the gEDA system
"work".  Now I love gEDA and am really comfortable with it, but I must
say that it's difficult to learn.  Perhaps a comprehensive
tutorial/manual that explains the usual PCB workflow would help.  I
know there are lots of ways to use gEDA, but for new users, a basic and
sensible standard workflow could be identified.

With the reminder that popularity is not necessarily related to the
"goodness" of a tool... I see that KiCAD does have some fairly popular
projects using it, while I haven't seen the same for gEDA.  I don't see
any project on the gEDA "projects using gEDA" list that I would
consider as high-profile as the following:

* reprap (http://reprap.org/wiki/KiCad)
* nanonote (http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Main_Page )
* Versaloon debugger/programmer (http://www.versaloon.com/)
  (First open-source SWD device and first OpenOCD SWD support.)

Certainly there are many complex and good designs done in gEDA, but as
far as serious high-profile projects, it looks like KiCAD has the
lead.  No matter, gEDA is what works well for me and that's all I
really care about!

Regards,
Colin


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