Re: gEDA-user: PCB format wishlist

[John Doty <jpd@xxxxxxxxx>]

All of this discussion of formats misses the shining example that's already in gEDA: the schematic format. Now *there's* a work of genius.

1. The format is based on a small, well-chosen set of elementary objects.

2. Elementary objects are represented by one-line tagged records of fixed format (identified by the tag). Almost any tool you might want to use can easily process a file of this sort without the need of any special library.

3. A set of objects can be attached to any abject. This can be in principle extended to unlimited depth.

4. Multi-line text objects are supported. There are few restrictions on the content of a text object.

(1) and (2) make the format easy to process with simple tools. (3) and (4) constitute an infinitely flexible escape hatch, although we're not using it to its full capability (but a single level of attached attributes is pretty good).

A good file format for this sort of thing avoids definitions for high level concepts. It provides mechanisms to compose high level objects from low level primitives. So, the question here starts with "what are the primitives that one constructs printed circuit board descriptions from?"

John Doty              Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd.
http://www.noqsi.com/
jpd@xxxxxxxxx




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