kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2/4/2014 9:57 AM, Tomasz Wlostowski wrote:
> On 02/04/2014 12:57 PM, Brian Sidebotham wrote:
>> I suspect it's all just a documentation issue too as someone else
>> suggested because it's so easy to branch the code and generate a patch
>> using Bazaar.
>>
>> Perhaps the best place for anyone who has decided Bazaar is dead (it
>> works for me by the way!) and therefore cannot contribute (and
>> particularly git fans) is to look at the Inkscape wiki:
>> http://www.inkscape.org/en/develop/getting-started/
>>
> Hi Brian,
> 
>> Or, you can just...
>>
>> bzr checkout lp:kicad
>> bzr branch ./kicad ./kicad-feature
> 
> $bzr branch ./kicad-master kicad-feat1
> 
> Takes ~half a minute on a core i7-m620. This I can live with...
> 
> $du -h ./kicad-feat1
> 203M
> 
> Now combine this with all dependencies (boost!) that get downloaded and
> compiled by cmake for each branch. Being a lazy git user, I feel like
> switching from a Ferrari to a Fiat Multipla (with broken engine...).
> 
>> I agree, we should probably have a wiki page similar to Inkscape's,
>> but Inkscape has many more contributors compared to KiCad. PCB design
>> is less popular than vector graphics in general.
> 
> I noticed that Inkscape guys have two very nice features that kicad
> could greatly benefit from:
> - git-bzr-ng: a git plugin that lets git users clone from/push to a
> bazaar repo. I gave it a quick try and it seems to satisfy my needs :)
> Maybe this will let us avoid another holy war between bzr and git
> worshippers.

I worship neither bzr or git but rather my free time which seems to
dwindle with each passing year.  If git-bzr-ng allow developers who
prefer git to work on Kicac, that is a good thing.

> - a separate repo or archives with all compiled, *binary* dependencies,
> at least for Windows. Compiling half of the system libraries just to
> build a single program was fun for me when I was 14. Since then I grew
> up and uninstalled Gentoo...

Kind of funny how that happens as we grow older.  Sometimes it's nice
getting something useful done rather than sitting around waiting for
your entire software stack to build.

> 
> After reading Adam's last email, I think that a complete binary
> archive/installer for all platforms would make sense (including our own
> boost/wx libs, just like LibreOffice/Mozilla). Just unpack or run the
> installer and enjoy!
> 
> Keep in mind that most of current and potential Kicad users aren't
> hardcore programmers and/or hate compiling and installing software (like
> myself). If getting Kicad to run takes more effort than install or
> pirate a proprietary tool, we are shooting ourselves in the foot.
> 
> -- my 5 cents,
> 
> Tom
> 
> PS. Since Brian switched to Linux, do we have any native Windows
> developers actively participating in Kicad? I have an impression that
> Kicad is becoming more and more Linux-ish (for example: relying a lot on
> environmental variables, shell scripts necessary to make stuff work)? If
> there are any native Windows users on this list, I'm asking for your
> opinion.

I find this a rather disturbing trend.  We really should try to make
sure that all new features can be built on the three major platforms.
I'm still try to keep things building properly using MinGW/MSYS but it
is becoming increasingly difficult.  My guess is most of our users are
using Windows so I think it is important that we do our best to keep it
up to date.  I'll take Linux as a build environment any day of the week
but until Windows goes away (which probably wont be in my life time), we
need to support it or risk losing our user base.

Wayne