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Re: New schematic file format.

 

On 3/31/2011 9:32 AM, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
> User options, preferences, state, and settings:
> 
> These all mean different things to different people, until you have a set of
> definitions.  So I will try briefly to distinguish and define.
> 
> 
> 
> 1*) User options
> 
> These are the same things  as "user preferences", and come in at least two
> flavors:
> 
> a) what to use on a new project, when it is first created.  These could and
> should be configurable such that any new project gets these settings as
> initial values.  Obviously these start from a global place, and get copied
> into a project specific place.
> 
> b) schematic specific options are also configurable, affect only current
> schematic, and reside in a schematic specific place.
> 
> 
> 
> 2*) State variables
> 
> These are things which change as a result of using the schematic editor,
> such as mouse pointer position and sheet on screen, currently selected mouse
> tool, and zoom level.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 3*) Settings
> 
> I guess this means user options, but since it is ambiguous, and not clearly
> conveying a new concept, we probably should not use this term.
> 
> 
> 
> My proposal to put the stuff into the schematic, pertains to 1*b) and 2*). 
> Inherent in my proposal is the desire to address the needs of those using a
> version control system, which includes me also.

1*b absolutely belong in the schematic.  Would it be better to save 2* in a
state_file or path/state_file so you have the benefit of last editor state
without changing the schematic file?  When using version control, you just
ignore the state file or path using your VCS's ignore directive.  The other
advantage is that when you revert from CVS to a previous version, you don't
lose your last editor state settings.

Wayne

> 
> The general concept is that a schematic can be loaded even when some
> information is missing, and therefore it is OK to remove some information
> when saving for a VCS commit.  If you look at the above definitions, it is
> clearly a case that we would not want 2*) State variables in the VCS
> compatible schematic file.   1*b) is not so obvious, and it can be argued
> that these preferences do in fact belong in the file, in particular if they
> change the type of board that you might end up with.
> 
> 
> Dick
> 
> 
> 
> 
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