kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[timofonic timofonic <timofonic@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sep 22, 2015 5:42 PM, "David Cary" <d.cary+2012@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

(snip)

> A tool that caches/stores datasheets locally sounds like a tool that
> would be useful to many people, even people that don't have KiCad
> installed.

Code reusability is very desired in the FOSS world, incrementally and
evolutionary improving it by all the involved parts. This saves resources
that could be used in other tasks, instead of "reinventing the wheel".

It's a win-win situation. One of the FOSS goals is about collaboration, not
competition.

A reusable solution would be desired, of course.

> Are you using a web browser to navigate to the URL of the datasheet?
> Is there some way to get the web browser to cache that datasheet, and
> wouldn't that be better than to get KiCad to cache the datasheet?

I unfortunately need to use a web browser for it and these days both sites
and browsers are extremely bloated.

I need to dig into tons of sites with zillions of annoying ads. Ad blockers
partially solve it, but there's tons of redirections and such. I understand
that's how they get profit in their business,  but it's based on
manipulate, torture and annoying to users.

I did read about paid subscription services that provide high quality
datasheets. I don't have the money and not sure about their real
reliability and if they improve the bad quality ones.

When I find datasheets, I often get:
- Crappy quality ones. Often scanned with bad OCR instead quality ones with
real text and vectorial images.
- Even if quality is okay they might have annoying watermarks that might
make difficult to read some data.
- Many of them might have scarce information, specially parts largely
manufactured by different manufacturers. In these unfortunate occasions I
might need to look into various ones to get all the needed data.
----> This crap is very time consuming, boring and depressing. So it might
be good if pain is shared, aka crowdsourcing it. Putting the good one(s) in
KiCad libraries make us happier, save us time and be another potential
killer app.

> I am reluctant to spend time writing yet another client-side caching
> proxy server from scratch, without understanding:
> How would that work any better than your web browser's cache or the
> existing caching proxy servers listed on the following pages?:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_cache
> http://www.jroller.com/bantunes/entry/open_source_caching_proxy_servers
>
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Proxying_and_Filtering/Products_and_Tools/Software/Server/

I understand it, but anyway...

How would you identify it's a datasheet and not a regular site with PDF?
Bayesian filtering? There's zillions of sites providing datasheets, even
you might get it in a forum or FTP if you need it for some old part.

Caching every PDF might fill your HDD or reduce performance.

> On Mon, Sep 21, 2015 at 5:19 PM, Adam Wolf
> <adamwolf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > KiCad works just fine without an internet connection, and based on the
> > strong opinions of many of the developers,I can only assume it will
remain
> > so for a long time.
> >
> > Caching proxy servers are available written in many languages, but are
not
> > part of KiCad.
> >
> > There is also a datasheet field, iirc, which can open PDF data sheets
when
> > they are stored on your system.

Isn't the datasheet field usually an URL?

It's okay. I just mean a wizard/plugin in form of a Python script to fetch
them and maybe check to get new ones in updated libraries. Just like with
parts libraries.

Kind regards
> > Adam Wolf
> > Cofounder and Engineer
> > Wayne and Layne
> >
> > On Sep 21, 2015 5:14 PM, "timofonic timofonic" <timofonic@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> >>
> >> Hello.
> >>
> >> I often get located at places without internet connectivity. This is
> >> annoying.
> >>
> >> What about a Python script that caches/stores datasheets locally?
Would it
> >> be possible?
>
> --
> David Cary
> +1(918)813-2279
> http://OpenCircuits.com/
> http://david.carybros.com/