kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/4/2013 3:22 PM, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
> 
>>
>> Thank you for your amazing effort on the GitHub plugin.  I am looking
>> forward to taking it for a test drive.  I hope to finish up the
>> FP_LIB_TABLE code and documentation by the end of the weekend.  With all
>> of the pieces in place, KiCad should have a really good footprint
>> library management system.
>>
>> Wayne
> 
> 
> Thank you Wayne!
> 
> I gave you bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1235317   :)

I noticed that :)  I took a quick look at the module editor and saving a
library may not be the only place where this will be a problem.  The
current code attempts to determine the correct plugin by the library
path using IO_MGR::GuessPluginTypeFromLibPath().  It appear that this is
where things are causing the problem.  I'll have to do a debug build on
Linux with the GIT_HUB_PLUGIN enabled in order to test this so it might
take me a day or so to get it all sorted out.

> 
> I also updated FP_LIB_TABLE class with the following API extensions, in *comment only*
> form, just as a means of suggesting the API that we should be using in the library manager
> when FP_LIB_TABLE is enabled.  These calls address all but the
> 
> a) library creation,
> b) library deletion
> 
> functions, which I think may need to be done with the help of the DIALOG_FP_LIB_TABLE.  So
> I defer those for now.
> 
> If we park the PLUGIN::RELEASER into the FP_LIB_TABLE we can easily cache the PLUGINs and
> then these new API functions make sense.  PLUGIN::RELEASER is not currently up to the task
> of operator=(), ( needed in ROW::operator=() ), but could be made so I assume.
> 
> Here are my suggested API function to bring into library management GUI, and remove
> references to ROW in there.  The idea is that we get two primary benefits:
> 
> Uppercase letters to show significant benefits:
> 
> A) retention of every plugin's cache.
> B) PROPERTIES can be passed to every PLUGIN::Footprint*() call.
> 
> 
> Here are the new functions in class FP_LIB_TABLE, which one of us should build into the
> library browser and editor UI IMO:
> 
> 
> #if 0       // PLUGIN API SUBSET, REBASED ON aNickname
> 
>     /**
>      * Function FootprintEnumerate
>      * returns a list of footprint names contained within the library given by
>      * @a aNickname.
>      *
>      * @param aNickname is a locator for the "library", it is a "name"
>      *     in FP_LIB_TABLE::ROW
>      *
>      * @return wxArrayString - is the array of available footprint names inside
>      *   a library
>      *
>      * @throw IO_ERROR if the library cannot be found, or footprint cannot be loaded.
>      */
>     wxArrayString FootprintEnumerate( const wxString& aNickname ) const;
> 
>     /**
>      * Function FootprintLoad
>      * loads a footprint having @a aFootprintName from the library given by @a aNickname.
>      *
>      * @param aNickname is a locator for the "library", it is a "name"
>      *     in FP_LIB_TABLE::ROW
>      *
>      * @param aFootprintName is the name of the footprint to load.
>      *
>      * @return  MODULE* - if found caller owns it, else NULL if not found.
>      *
>      * @throw   IO_ERROR if the library cannot be found or read.  No exception
>      *          is thrown in the case where aFootprintName cannot be found.
>      */
>     MODULE* FootprintLoad( const wxString& aNickname, const wxString& aFootprintName ) const;
> 
>     /**
>      * Function FootprintSave
>      * will write @a aFootprint to an existing library given by @a aNickname.
>      * If a footprint by the same name already exists, it is replaced.
>      *
>      * @param aNickname is a locator for the "library", it is a "name"
>      *     in FP_LIB_TABLE::ROW
>      *
>      * @param aFootprint is what to store in the library. The caller continues
>      *    to own the footprint after this call.
>      *
>      * @throw IO_ERROR if there is a problem saving.
>      */
>     void FootprintSave( const wxString& aNickname, const MODULE* aFootprint );
> 
>     /**
>      * Function FootprintDelete
>      * deletes the @a aFootprintName from the library given by @a aNickname.
>      *
>      * @param aNickname is a locator for the "library", it is a "name"
>      *     in FP_LIB_TABLE::ROW
>      *
>      * @param aFootprintName is the name of a footprint to delete from the specified library.
>      *
>      * @throw IO_ERROR if there is a problem finding the footprint or the library, or
> deleting it.
>      */
>     void FootprintDelete( const wxString& aNickname, const wxString& aFootprintName );
> 
>     /**
>      * Function IsFootprintLibWritable
>      * returns true iff the library given by @a aNickname is writable.  (Often
>      * system libraries are read only because of where they are installed.)
>      *
>      * @throw IO_ERROR if no library at aLibraryPath exists.
>      */
>     bool IsFootprintLibWritable( const wxString& aNickname );
> 
> #endif
> 
> 
> These are now in the repo, but commented out.
> 
> They mirror the similarly named ones in the PLUGIN class, but omit the PROPERTIES* since
> they are in the ROW, and aNickname takes the place of aLibraryPath.  Good symmetry otherwise.
> 
> GITHUB plugin will yield great benefits from these changes, but will still be too slow for
> the "List All" footprint select dialog.  I have a couple of ideas in mind for that issue.
>  Having the "options" in place will give us more options, including COW support, or
> launching multiple threads to do the "List All" function.
> 
> Again, I am deferring library create and delete into the future, and want to think of
> those processes as being fully subject to change when USE_FP_LIB_TABLE is in play.
> 
> 
> Dick
> 
> 
>