kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 03/27/2012 04:56 AM, Edwin van den Oetelaar wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> My name is Edwin, I have some motivation and skill to help with your project.
> Although I am not very old yet, I do have some deep knowledge of
> PCB's, data-formats, workflow and related software.
> (I have been working in this field for more than 15 years)
>
> I can program in almost anything, and have some visions on how to make
> this project even better.
>
> Just throw me a bone (a few bugs to get my teeth into) so I can chew
> on it, and help you.

Hi Edwin,

Welcome to our mailing list.

One of the tasks we are working on is a movement to a new BOARD format.  I am out for a
couple days soon, but after that I can write up another "work package" which describes
tasks needed to complete this migration.

In the meantime, please single step through KICAD_PLUGIN to get a feel how it loads and
saves BOARDS.  ioascii.cpp and io_item.cpp are on death row.

This KICAD_PLUGIN is soon to be renamed to LEGACY_PLUGIN, and the name KICAD_PLUGIN will
be used for new code, being written by Wayne *now*, which will use s-expressions, and
fractional millimeter units in the new BOARD files.

KICAD_NANOMETER is a compile time option.   Only when defined, will we support nanometers
as our internal unit within PCBNEW.  Said differently, this is NOT a runtime option, but
is a compile time option.

You heard me say that the BOARD is going to be saved in (fractional) millimeters, and the
internal units will be nanometers when KICAD_NANOMETER is defined during compilation of
PCBNEW.

Most of the additional work needed to complete the bridge to KICAD_NANOMETERs is in the
dialogs, mouse movement scaling, etc, basically at the UI level.

We also need to pick a new file extension, since I don't want to have to read a BOARD file
to figure out what format it is in.   Something like:


   *.kicad_pcb


Please answer these questions to allow me to help you best get involved:


a) are you interested in this KICAD_NANOMETER work for PCBNEW?

b) what is your C++ experience in years and projects?

c) how many hours per week can you offer the project?


Thanks,

Dick



> I am a bit confused about how this is coordinated, I see so many
> websites (sourceforge/lauchpad/yahoo, some French stuff)
> Just point me in the right direction.

Please answer the questions, and I will.

> Keep it going, and have a happy day,
>
> Edwin
>
> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
> .
>