Re: gEDA-user: PCB a bad name ?

[Vaughn Treude <vltreude@xxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 2006-09-19 at 22:50, Arthur Baldwin wrote:
> Hi guys,
>  
> I've been reading this particular subject a little bit lately and I
> think that it's a good idea to link other websites to your page. 
> However, I think there is a much more important way to increase
> interest in the entire gEDA project.  And that would be to focus on
> further integrating the modules, making the install much faster and
> smoother for novice Linux users, and making sure that installing the
> software NEVER breaks another commonly used application.  I have been
> following the gEDA project since 1998 but have not actively promoted
> it very much to my acquaintances who have a love of Electronics
> Engineering...because I didn't think it was really ready for them to
> use...since most of them currently use Windows and I have trouble just
> getting them to "think about using Linux".  I personally LOVE
> Linux...and promote that as much as possible...but not gEDA...because
> the installation is as much a "nightmare" as I would care to expound
> upon to anyone. 

As a rank newbie to the gEDA suite, I'd like to weigh in on this.  I
downloaded the ISO image install of gEDA, and it went incredibly
smoothly for me.  I thought that bundling it all was a clever idea,
because I've gone to dependency hell many times in my dealings with
Linux.  (And I've been into Linux since the days of Yggdrasil, if anyone
remembers that.)  I don't know how the install would go if I tried to do
it piece by piece.  I do know that when I updated PCB, it was easy,
probably because the dependencies were already there from the bundled
install.  Of course, I may have just been lucky that my distro (a recent
version of Centos) was relatively compatible.  The only complaint I have
about the install is that the target defaulted to a weird path
(/usr/local/geda-install) which caused some issues later on. 

In my experience, the biggest problems I've had so far have been with
the user interface, especially on PCB.  In that sense I'll have to agree
with Arthur; the integration isn't good.  PCB's UI in particular
deviates from Linux norms.  That's somewhat understandable, because PCB
predates the other "GAF" pieces.  If I ever catch up on my current
projects, I'd like to help with some of these issues.

Vaughn T

>  And there is basically NO integration.  Fixing these issues will get
> the entire gEDA project VERY noticed by everyone.  I happen to be
> fully aware of its potential...and so are many other engineers...but
> they are watching this project from a distance...until these issues
> are addressed.  Don't think I'm "picking on you"....I'm not...I
> believe in gEDA as probably the single most valuable project ever
> undertaken in the history of the world...but its lack of adoption
> centers around the issues I have pointed out....not because it isn't
> known.
>  
> Arthur
> 
> 
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