kicad-developers team mailing list archive

["Richard A Burton" <richardaburton@...>]

> > I don't think these should be installed world writeable or anything
> > like that as a solution. I think it's reasonable to have people copy
> > and modify ones if they like, but the way to do that is probably to
> > allow overrides, i.e. look in users home directory and use symbols
> > from there instead of the stock ones if they have the same name.
>
> If we separate the libraries to invidual files there is *no need*
> to copy the whole library to my home directory. I can just add
> new device to the appropriate library by creating the device and
> placing into the appropriate folder.

That's what I was saying/went on to say, so it sounds like we agree on that.

> >Yes, please put them in a zip file, or some other such archive. There
> >is something horribly inefficient about lots small files when one
> >large one will do. I agree with your logic though, having separate
> >files for each symbol. Using an archive seems logical to get the
> >advantages of both, just takes a little more effort to implement.
>
> I disagree here. Your point about diskusage is not valid when
> a megabyte diskspace costs next to nothing.

It's less about the size, and more about the filesystem entries. My
fsck already takes long enough when it runs. But just because disk
space is cheap, doesn't mean you should use it inefficiently, why do
you think the system requirements of Windows are so high? Lazy
microsoft programmers deciding that people can always upgrade their
hardware.

> My /usr directory contains 234408 files.
> Should I really care for thousands of files? I dont think so.

Whether you care or not is your business. Some people doesn't care
about global warming but that doesn't mean it's not a problem. Just
because you can find examples (no doubt plenty of them) that make poor
use of the filesystem doesn't mean you should copy them. I come from a
background where you write efficient software even if you could get
away with writing it less so, maybe that's not popular anymore, but
then look where that's brought us.

> >For users who want to modify a symbol: instead of copying a file to
> >their home dir from the kicad install dir they unzip a file to their
> >home dir from the installed kicad library archive. Essentially the
> >same thing.
>
> Why the user would need to copy the whole library into their home
> directory in the first place?
> Just create the appropriate "libraryname" subdirectory and place
> ONE file into it (what he had created).

They don't, that's the point. I'm not sure if you are agreeing with me
or you just don't understand what I've written.

> When you ship Kicad, it is already zipped. (or tar.gz).
> Why do you want to zip yet one more time?
> (zip the individual library groups (power, device, xilinx, valves, etc),
> and you zip the whole thing one more time. It does not results smaller
> file size. But does hide some important details from the user)

Now you really are misunderstanding. There is a difference between how
a product is shipped and how it ends up installed, that should be
pretty obvious, I'm concerned that you don't get it.

It doesn't really hide anything either, it's obvious what a zip file
it is and that it will contain further files. You'd also hope that
someone wanting to extend their libraries might have a quick glance in
the manual about how to add their own symbols (they'll have to do this
anyway, so it just needs a note to say they are in a zip file).

Richard.