kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Miguel Angel Ajo Pelayo <miguelangel@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Dick,

   Thanks for your feedback on the ideas, it's really appreciated, I fully
understand all of your points, as I'm on the same situation with some open
projects and my little company. I supposed that most of the ideas were
already in your mind, but if I didn't share them I wouldn't know now where
do they converge with yours :-)

    I really love the V8 engine, just played a little bit on embedded
systems, and it works incredibly fast (it does JIT of the code and you get
all the flexibility of javascript), and nodeJS gives all the functionality
needed to access the underlaying OS and network, although I'm not sure if
it's internal design makes it suitable to get integrated in other apps.

     I'm also using SWIG to build interfaces to many languages, and it
works incredibly well. I must test the swig-js and see how mature is.

    Personally, I'd like to give "some blood" on the project as soon as I
can and get familiar with kicad's code/design :-)

    Cheers,
Mike

2012/2/17 Dick Hollenbeck <dick@xxxxxxxxxxx>

> On 02/17/2012 01:17 AM, Miguel Angel Ajo Pelayo wrote:
> >
> >    Even if I cannot allocate any time to help, I think I should dump to
> you my ideas
> > before I forget them
> > (some can be crazy and expensive to develop, I know):
> >
> >    1) Single layer view while routing: (some hot key) that would enable
> a special view mode
> > where the current routing layer is show in its own color, but all other
> layers go gray.
> >  I've used
> > this in other tools and it's very helpful, and I suppose it's not hard
> to implement (if
> > not already done).
> >
> >    2) Footprint wizards/plugins (following IPC models, etc..), you give
> A,B,C,D,E
> > spacings/parameters, get a preview
> >    of the footprint on the windows, then setup the density level, and
> finally add the
> > part to the library.
> >
> >    3) Higher level scripting languages: some integration with Python/V8
> engine
> > (javascript)/etc.. giving a layer
> > of objects to access al the PCB/SCH elements from the high level
> scripts, and also
> > allowing for user interfaces
> > to be launched.
>
> Two weeks ago I looked into adding support for V8.  V8 is google's
> javascript engine and
> they use it under the chrome browser.  (You may already have a copy on
> your disk now.)  V8
> is very fast.  There is another project that sits on top of V8 called
> node.js.  node.js is
> great at writing asynchronous webservers, and has been shown to actually
> be faster than
> apache in some circumstances.
>
> My measurement of doing it manually said that it is a lot of work.
>  However since then I
> see some folks are trying to add the binding generation functionality to
> SWIG.  SWIG can
> generate bindings for a number of languages, in theory.
>
>
> http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.programming.swig.devel/20373
> https://github.com/oliver----/swig-js
>
> This is an ancillary project, and not integrated into core SWIG from what
> I can tell.
>
> node.js has gathered so much momentum that it is actually changing the
> choice of languages
> used on the server side for many web applications.  There are two reasons
> for this that I
> can see:  a) node.js on top of V8 is fast.  b) being able to use
> javascript both on the
> client side and server side is attractive to many developers.
>
>
>
> >
> >     4) Push routing mode: allowing to push other tracks around while you
> route a new track.
>
> This is arguably the most important need of KiCad.
>
>
> >
> >     5) Differential net tagging on schematic, differential net routing
> on pcb.
> >
> >     6) This is just another parallel project, but could be awesome:
>  Something like the
> > google content central
> > for sketchup, just an open site (that could be cloned anywhere) ready to
> act as a
> > repository of schematic symbols +footprints,
> > people could rate them and add comments,etc..  and later kicad could
> connect to these
> > repositories, and browse/use any parts.
>
> The SWEET with distributed library manager concept that I have been
> working on in the /new
> directory within the source tree approaches this concept for EESCHEMA.  My
> thoughts have
> been that what is learned here can later be applied in the more elaborate
> requirements of
> PCBNEW.
>
>
> >
> >     7) Fast preview of libraries: to show a preview of what we're
> chosing in the
> > footprint asignment window.
> >
> >     And I'm already forgetting things,
> >
> >    Greetings to everyone,
> > Mike,
>
> To summarize, we are not short on ideas.  I think sometimes new users come
> into use of a
> project and just assume that the reason a feature is not there is because
> nobody has
> thought of it.  However, more often than not, it is a lack of "qualified
> developer
> man-hours", which typically are not free.  And when they do become
> available, need to be
> thought of as financial contributions in and of themselves, even no money
> has changed hands.
>
> It is my view that once the following 3 items are in place, then the
> corporate users will
> storm in en-mass, and then there may be a way to fund the time of
> qualified developers:
>
> *) Push routing  (no. 4 above)
>
> *) Painless importation of Eagle files and other popular formats.
>
> *) no. 6 above, along with my distributed library concepts in /new
>
> Until then, there will be limits to what gets done in KiCad, and pouring
> more and more
> mere "ideas" into it will not actually serve to get anything done.
> The main developers cannot simply work on KiCad without getting paid
> beyond a certain
> amount of hours per week.  Think of it as giving blood, doing a little is
> fine and may
> make you feel good, *giving* too much will kill you (financially and
> emotionally).
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dick
>
>
>
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-- 

Miguel Angel Ajo Pelayo
http://www.nbee.es
+34 636 52 25 69
skype: ajoajoajo