kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 5/12/2012 8:17 PM, Henner Zeller wrote:
> Hi,
> This is my first post to this list, so let me introduce myself. In my
> day-life I am a software engineer working on big C++ programs; in my
> free time I am a maker of all kinds of things, part of it is
> electronics, mostly digitally. From multi-terabyte RAM in a
> distributed system to 128 byte RAM in a microcontroller - all provide
> their own fun and challenges.
> 
> I have used eagle for my PCB-needs ever since it was available on DOS
> (uh, that might've been somewhere in the 80ies/early 90ies), and the
> availability later on Linux made me keep using it, but using a closed
> source tool always made me feel icky.
> So I revisited my choice and looked at kicad which seems like a very
> nice alternative indeed.
> 
> Of course, there are things to improve, and this is where I'd like to
> contribute. My main pain point right now is the integration of
> components and their packages (e.g. when moving to a board, manually
> choose footprints with no clear default association) I'll have to play
> around a bit with it though to come up with concrete ideas. In general
> a more 'smooth' integration between the different tools would probably
> be nice.
> Anyway, since I am probably not the only one, I'd like to know if
> someone is working on this area. Maybe goals are discussed or
> described somewhere ? The main kicad site seems to be down right now,
> so excuse me if I ask something obvious (I've seen for instance the
> BIU change described in the source (biu-plan.txt), but haven't seen
> other highlevel plans documented there).
> 
> I'll be travelling the next three weeks, so the next month or so, I'll
> be mostly watching the mailing list, reading code etc. before I can
> contribute something, one small patch at a time while learning the
> code base.
> 
> cheers,
>   -henner

Henner,

Welcome to the list.  If you haven't done so yet, please read the Coding
Style Policy at
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~kicad-testing-committers/kicad/testing/view/head:/Documentation/coding_style_policy.pdf.
 Patches are typically rejected if they don't follow the coding policy.
 Another good source of information is the Getting Started FAQ at
https://answers.launchpad.net/kicad/+faq/1050.  You've done the right
thing by letting folks on the developer list know what you're interested
in working on.  This is the best way to prevent conflicts.  It's also a
good idea to get the input from the mailing list when making changes to
existing behavior.  Search the mailing list archives before starting
something new.  Chances are, it's already been discussed.  Please be
patient.  The lead KiCad developers have limited free time and cannot
always respond as soon as most would like.  One thing you will find is
there is no shortage of ideas, mostly a shortage of manpower to make
them happen.  Start small, be a team player, and work your way up is
most likely path to success within the project.  Good luck.

Wayne