kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo_bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----

> From: Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cc: 
> Sent: Wednesday, February 5, 2014 11:04 AM
> Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] Revisiting the Git decision
> 
> 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
> 


I'd check my own patches on MSWin but I couldn't get a build system running and I gave up. I managed to get as far as installing MSys (32-bit) and then MinGW (64-bit) and the compiler, then I lost track of what had to be done. I think the fact that MSys remains 32-bit makes life harder than necessary. 'bzr' is a nightmare to build (I gave up), but the 32-bit version available for MSys won't work with the Python installation ...

I figured I'd let people who know what they're doing sort things out and I'll set up a dev environment when I have clearer instructions.

- Cirilo