Re: gEDA-user: wxPCB Goals

[Steve Meier <smeier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think it is funny that fork is taken negatively. It is actually a
compliment. A fork says, your code is so far along and so good that
rather then rewrite it I am going to use it as my base. Then people like
Bob and Tim add, by the way, when it is realistic I well generate patch
files to submite my changes back into the code base.

I do the samething for gschem. I modify gaf to have "better"
hierarchical bus capabilities. And I inform the main developers of what
I am doing and occasionally give them a chance to abuse my code.

So, have at it Bob. After all this is what Open Source is all about.

Steve Meier


Bob Paddock wrote:
>I have mentioned wxPCB here a few times, so I thought I'd spell out my
>goals so it does not seem like the TCL fork that seems to have taken many by
>surprise.
>
>Has DJ has mentioned he is working on separating the GUI from the logic
>of PCB, with the goal being able to use different GUI's.
>
>My GUI of choice is wxWidgets, http://www.wxwidgets.org/ , for two reasons.
>One reason is that I use it regularly in my day job so I am familiar with it.
>
>The other reason for choosing wxWidgets is that it is cross platform compatible.
>To that end the main goal of wxPCB is to create a version of PCB that will run natively
>on Windows, without requiring X or anything else foreign to Windows.
>
>The cross platform compatibility lets me develop wxPCB on my home Linux box, as well as
>cross compile with Mingw32 for Windows.  As an aside I have crossed compiled Mingw Windows
>code and run it under the WINE emulator.  Doing this has an advantage that if you have WINE
>installed you can run wxPCB without getting into any kind of "dependency hell" as we have
>seen problems with here on the list.
>
>A secondary side of effect of using wxWidgets is that wxPCB should run on the MAC and the
>PocketPC.  I don't have the hardware to test those, does anyone here?  While only a
>masochist is going to do a PCB layout on a PocketPC, I see that platform valuable for field
>service work.  Have you every needed to check a PCB layout while stuck in a coal mine doing
>field service work?  I have, you don't want to do it.
>
>Here is my prioritized list of goals and status:
>
>* Use DoxyGen to document all code and manuals.  http://www.doxygen.org/
>On Going.
>
>* Implement basic frame work.
>Done.  Since under Linux wxWidgets uses wxGTK
>it looks a lot like the GTK port of PCB now.  I did make one change in that
>I made a pull-down-menu under the mode buttons to select the grid size, of
>both Metric and Imperial units
>
>* Implement 'Help' sub-system code.
>Done.
>
>* Implement the 'Help' text itself.
>On going.
>Need to find the most accuretet and uptodate PCB documentation.
>Suggestions?
>
>* Implement load/save of keyboard bindings at run time.
>In process.
>http://wxcode.sourceforge.net/components/keybinder/
>
>* Implement autoupdate to update wxPCB and support files
>from wxPCB web site.
>http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=510716
>
>* Implement browsable footprint library based on thumbnails.
>John Luciani has graccisuly allowed me to use his foot print library.
>It is implemented within wxPCB as a virtual filesystem containted with a .ZIP file.
>This gets around cross platform issues with symbolic links.  XP does have symbolic links
>called 'Junctions' but few know of them or use them.
>Will have to create thumbnails of M4. Yuck. :-(
>
>* Implement Internationalization (I18N) and Localization (L10).
>In the short term wxPCB uses the native wxWidgets GetText, in the very long term
>I want to move to ICU.
>
>The GNU GetText project deals with translation.
>http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/
>
>Use http://www.poedit.org/ to implement the catalogs.
>
>The IBM ICU project deals with everything.
>http://www.ibm.com/software/globalization/icu/
>
>* Implement a set of abstract classes to add script-interpreter support.
>The implementation of these interfaces for the Lua, Python, UnderC and CINT interpreters etc.
>http://wxcode.sourceforge.net/components/wxscript/
>
>* Designator renumbering and back-annotation to gschem files.
>
>* BOM generator.
>
>* Automatic creation of Web site ready output files.
>
>* Ability to run other gEDA programs such as gschem as transparently as possible,
>as not to confuse Windows people.  [This one is at the bottom because there
>is not a gschem for Windows yet, otherwise it would be higher on the list.]
>
>* Do something useful with http://www.wxpcb.com/ .
>
>