kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Chris Pavlina <pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx>]

Good lord. You know you can just store datasheets in a directory on your file system, right? The same way people have stored things on computers for decades. Your computer /already has this functionality/.

On Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 11:08:45PM +0200, timofonic timofonic wrote:
> 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/

> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp