kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Javier Serrano <javier.serrano.pareja@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear KiCad friends,

Here's a quick update on what we have been up to at CERN lately, and
also some words on plans for the immediate future, along with opinions
on some of the latest subjects discussed in the list:

Current developments: Orson is working on porting pcbnew tools to the
new tool framework, and fixing bugs. The goal is to have a reasonable
chance of being able to design a complete PCB using the new OpenGL
canvas, without switching back to the standard (so far) view. Tom is
working on the P&S router but only in his "spare" time, so progress on
that front is to be expected at a slower pace. His main focus is to fix
bugs and to add dragging support in P&S mode.

Future plans: my intention before the end of last year was to use the
first part of 2014 to GALify eeschema and start writing tools for it
using the tool framework, and being in good enough shape before the
summer to organize a hackathon at CERN, inviting people to contribute
(among other things) new tools for eeschema and pcbnew. This may well be
a bit optimistic, but I thought I'd mention it in case enough of you
think it's a good idea and want to help make it happen. A get-together
in the summer might be useful independently of the state of eeschema.

On the subject of taking KiCad towards a "just works" kind of product:
there have been quite a lot of discussions lately (both in the developer
and user mailing lists) about support for building under the three
reference platforms, documentation, how to use new features, etc. I
think all these messages are a clear indication that, if wide adoption
of KiCad is one of the goals, more attention should be devoted to some
areas outside the mere addition of features. We are ready to help on
that side of things as well, wherever we can. In particular, I
appreciate the efforts of Adam, Brian, Miguel, Marco and others working
on build support and releases in the different platforms, and I think
they will have much better chances of success if a public master plan is
used to drive and coordinate KiCad development, part of that plan being
to make the job easier for people who want to package and release KiCad
for users who just want an EDA suite that works out of the box, and also
for people who want to contribute documentation. I hope this does not
sound too heavy or rigid. What I have in mind is really lightweight.

On the subject of git vs. bzr: we are quite neutral. We would
definitely pick git for any green field project, but we understand the
points raised by everybody so far. I don't think bzr has been a
hindrance for us to contribute, because the effort we had to invest to
master it was marginal compared to our overall effort. This might not be
the case for everyone.

On FOSDEM: definitely for. FOSDEM is a great venue to learn, share and
announce KiCad to the world. If the idea moves forward, we will
definitely participate.

Thanks everyone for your work on KiCad. It's looking better and better
every day, and the prospects for this year are really good!

Cheers,

Javier