kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@...>]

phinitnan_c wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Refer to my previous thread,
> 
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-devel/message/3625
> 
> and a wiki page about new library system spec,
> 
> http://kicad.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/New_Library_System_Spec
> 
> I'd like to ask a few questions.
> 
> 1) Is there developers working on the new library file format specification? I may be able to help.

The only proposed change to the library file format that I am aware of
is the one I proposed which is to merge the document file *.dcm with the
library file *.lib. I held off to see what additional information may
be required by the library updates that some of the other developers are
working on.

> 2) Is there the document for the current file format? I tried to find it with no luck.

Yes. You can check it out of SVN. The Kicad wiki has all the
information you need. It is in an OpenOffice.org format.

> 3) Would it be possible to use an existing database engine (eg. sqlite) to store library/module information?

Yes it would be possible. I think you will find most developers on this
list (this one include) prefer text file formats so that they can be
created, manipulated, and viewed with their favorite editor and command
line tools. I for one do not want the component definitions themselves
to be saved in a database. Tagging and file path information could be
put in a database for searching purposes but not the actual component
definitions themselves. If an acceptable search solution using tags in
plain text files cannot be developed, then a database may be an option.
I don't believe we have actually gotten to that point yet.

Wayne