Re: gEDA-user: Gerbv-2.0.1 for Windows released, but not working!

[Rick Collins <erudite999@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:12 AM 9/3/2008, you wrote:

> I also can't seem to find any documentation on this program.  I would like to
> read up on what features are supported and how they operate.  I am having
> trouble doing anything other than just looking at Gerber files.  Even printing
> doesn't seem to work well.

There is no documentation.  The man page is probably several years out
of date.

Please tell us specifically what you want to do and we can try to give
you some instructions.

I have been trying to use the project save and load feature.  I can't figure out what it actually does or how to use it.  I can save a project, but when I load it I see nothing. 

The other issue is how the XYRS feature is supposed to work.  I have no idea of how the file is to be formatted or what it should do when loaded. 

I can't seem to produce a decent print to a PDF file.  I have selected Black&White, but it comes out gray (I guess that's black and white at the same time, right?) and looks more like a picture with small pixels instead of lines and circles.  Many of the smaller drawing features are missing.

Gerbv is designed and built for Linux and other unix platforms.  The
Windows port is possible only because some of the associated libraries
have been ported to Windows.  However, since all the libraries and the
basic functions in gerbv assume things work in the unix way, you'll
probably experience a number of teething problems.

I can't say I understand that.  I am not familiar with Linux coding, but I don't see how any of that would affect the user interface.  Is there something special about Unix that puts requirements on the user interfaces?  I have seen some Unix based apps that seem to run very well under Windows and I have seen some that run ok, but have clear differences in appearance.  Then, of course, I have seen others that just don't run...

If you're willing to be patient and provide bug reports, then I am
sure Dan will poke away at fixing the bugs you find.  This would be a
win-win for everybody, since we'd be able to iron out the wrinkles in
the Windows version.

Sure, that's why I'm here.  But it is hard to report bugs if you don't have a basic idea of how the software is supposed to work. 

Alternately, if you really want to use gerbv without fiddling around,
get yourself a Linux box and run it there.

"Without fiddling around"...  I think you underestimate the level of difficulty this presents for many of us.  I used Unix some 30 years ago when all computers were consol based.  It was not much different, just different command names really.  Once Windows hit the scene the differences have blossomed.  I even bought an *X* machine once.  It has Lindows running on it.  But it came with few apps and those crashed a lot.  In the end I had to install Windows on it to be able to do anything useful.  But I have a box sitting here that I will be brining up in the next couple of weeks.  Maybe I'll try Linux on it.  If I could only choose one of the many, many versions...

Rick

Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company
Specializing in DSP and FPGA design      URL http://www.arius.com
4 King Ave                               301-682-7772 Voice
Frederick, MD 21701-3110

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