kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Tim Hutt <tdhutt@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 10 September 2014 20:57, Lorenzo Marcantonio <l.marcantonio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 06:54:13PM +0100, Tim Hutt wrote:
>
> > 1. Good software has a manual. Great software doesn't need one.
>
> OK, then try set correctly some FPGA timing constraint without reading
> the manual:D Even with all the good explanatory drawing you'll get
> nowhere without the underlying theory :P
>

Well of course there are limits. EDA basics are not FPGA timing constraints
though!


>  it's more like saying "write a program in Pascal without
> reading the instructions"...
>

They're not *that* different. I'd say it's more like using Solidworks if
you've only used Pro/E. The basics are identical:

1. Create component footprint.
2. Create component symbol.
3. Join them together into a component.
4. Repeat for all components.
5. Place components into schematic and connect them via nets.
6. Translate schematic into PCB.
7. Manually or automatically route traces.
8. Export gerbers.


> Do you know someone that actually reads them? :D
>

I think you're thinking of "Tip of the day", in which case you are
absolutely right - *nobody* reads them! But people read context-sensitive
popup hints. Every time I've seen one (which isn't often) they've been
helpful.