kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 5/1/2013 4:26 PM, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
> On 05/01/2013 12:18 PM, Lorenzo Marcantonio wrote:
>> I was testing stuff and well... in the kicad_brd file the sheet date is
>> not saved. I found this pearl in TITLE_BLOCK::Format:
>>
>>     /* version control users were complaining, see mailing list.
>>     if( !m_date.IsEmpty() )
>>         aFormatter->Print( aNestLevel+1, "(date %s)\n",
>>                             aFormatter->Quotew( m_date ).c_str() );
>>     */
>>
>> What is a field useful for if it's not saved? It always come up empty, in this
>> way.
>>
>> In many companies the date on a drawing is actually more important than the
>> drawing version number (in fact ISO/EN 7200:2004 requires the date of issue,
>> which is legally binding for a number of things). Other dates (approval,
>> modifications and so on) are optional but the "document date" is mandatory.
>>
>> I think the best solution would be putting the date as an editable field (with
>> the title, company and so on): this would eliminate the localization issue and
>> in the mean time allow a 'significant' date to be set (not necessarily that's
>> the last modified date, for a number of reasons). Also the vcs users wouldn't
>> have to complain (I don't see the problem if a date changes in a versioned
>> file... maybe they don't like it).
> 
> 
> OK, I remember now.
> 
> 
> Your suggestion of having it editable is OK for me.  But is not OK for others.  There are
> 4 schools of thought, and funny thing is you and I are in the same camp after all.
> 
> 
> 1) Make it editable, and fixed, not dynamically updated.  If I put in a date, it stays
> that way forever on disk too.
> 
> 
> 2) Make it dynamic (i.e. automatically updated), reflective of the last time of board
> *modification*, not last time of save.
> 
> 
> 3) Make it dynamic (i.e. automatically updated), reflective of the last time of board *save*.
> 
> 
> 4) Remove it, keep it out of the file, until the dispute is settled.
> 
> 
> We were at 4).  If we uncomment the code, we get 2), and then I get yelled at again by the
> VCS users.
> 
> 
> I don't want to keep getting yelled at.  :)   It gets hard to remember being yelled at.
> 
> Jean-Pierre is in camp 2).
> 
> I am in camp 1) or 4), just because the VCS users will eventually win, I recognize that,
> and I want the problem to go away.  I use VCS too, and reporting a new date for every
> change is not especially helpful to me, with my VCS user hat on, and advocating for those
> I know will complain later.  Been there, and had that conversation already.
> 
> 
> Help wanted.  :)
> 
> 
> Dick
> 

5) Add a configuration option to select 1), 2), or 3) and let the user
decide how they want the title block date to be updated.  Make option 1)
the default so the VCS users don't start yelling again.

The page properties dialog would be a logical place to add this option
setting since all of the other title block entries are set there.  I
don't remember what we are doing in the schematic file but my guess is
that it's similar so the title block date should be handle there in the
same fashion.