Re: gEDA-user: gEDA and pcb status and minigration from Eagle

[Kai-Martin Knaak <kmk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:09:30 +0900, Torsten Wagner wrote:

> Initially, I believe that according to my work habits, gEDA and pcb
> might be more suitable to me then KiCad. However, I can not see the
> ongoing usage and development of this projects in the near future.

geda development is pretty active. I started working with geda in 2005. 
The user interface of both GUIs have improved a lot since then. There is 
a major step forward imminent for pcb: Use OpenGL for graphics to add 
transparency of tracks and increase the speed of the GUI.


> the blogosphere and
> Internet is rather quite about this packages.

Is the blogospere more chatty on kicad?

 
> Furthermore, can I do all the stuff I was used to do in eagle with gEDA
> and pcb ?

I'd say, the GUIs of geda and pcb can do all eagle GUI can and more. In 
many cases, changes require less hassle in geda/pcb than in eagle. A 
prominent example is the way to increase a single pad of an instance of a 
footprint in a layoput. In eagle this involves creation of a special 
footprint. In pcb this is a simple key press when the mouse hovers over 
the pad.

If you are deep into scripting for eagle, you may find that geda cannot 
do everything you want. Scripting is a weak spot of this suite. 
Currently, there is none in gschem and only linear lists of commands 
("actions") in pcb. The file formats of geda are pure ascii and fairly 
simple. So you can directly manipulate the files with the scripting tool 
of your choice. 


> Are there any shortcuts or limitations ? 

Less than with eagle. 


> How mature and stable are the suite yet ? 
> Can it be really considered for serious work ?

Well, I am biased, as I regard my work as "serious"...


> As for me I have no problem to get my hand dirty and crawl around in
> config- files and text-files.

You will love the numerous config files of the geda suite ;-)


> For Eagle, I liked the little command line at the
> bottom of the window, which allowed me to type in comments rather then
> clicking and searching around in GUI-settings. If there is something
> like this in gschem or pcb I would be happy to use it.

There is a command entry field in pcb. There is nothing like this in 
gschem. But I didn't feel the need for it either. The user interface of 
gschem and pcb is much more friendly than the GUI of eagle. IMHO eagle 
could serve as a n example how not to do a complex GUI. 


> Just don't want to ride a dead horse and notice later that the projects
> freeze

No way. There way too many independent core developers. Even if they all 
were to quit coding, I am sure some power users would carry on the flag. 
Some users already did forks for their own purpose...

---<(kaimartin)>---
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak                                  tel: +49-511-762-2895
Universität Hannover, Inst. für Quantenoptik      fax: +49-511-762-2211	
Welfengarten 1, 30167 Hannover           http://www.iqo.uni-hannover.de
GPG key:    http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?search=Knaak+kmk&op=get



_______________________________________________
geda-user mailing list
geda-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user