kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 9/17/2016 6:59 AM, Simon Wells wrote:
> As legacy canvas in pcbnew is legacy is it worth conditional compiling
> all the code related and only used by legacy canvas based on a cmake
> option aka something like
> 
> KICAD_BUILD_LEGACY_CANVAS with a default of ON, this will allow people
> who have no use for the legacy canvas as they have a truly functional
> opengl canvas to see in their usual workflow if anything is missing.
> 
> I realise that wayne is waiting on a replacement non-gl dependent GAL
> canvas before removing legacy, but in the interim is it worth making
> it an option making less work later on when its time to remove it
> 
> Simon
> 

I'm not sure what this would buy the project in terms of usefulness.  As
far as I am concerned there are still to far too many issues with the
gal canvas and new tool framework for me to give the go ahead to pull
the plug on the legacy canvas.  Here is my short list:

Stability: the current state of the p&s router stability is not what it
needs to be.  We still have users that seem to be able to crash it at
will.  It seems to me there are memory management issues at play here
that need some scrutiny.  IMO this needs to be bullet proof.  Period.

Polish: there are too many missing context menu entries from the gal
context menus which make the gal canvases less convenient to use than
the legacy canvas.  The last I heard, custom hot keys are still not
respected by gal but I could be wrong about this.  There is still no
track clearance indicator even routing a single trace.  There is a long
laundry list of these types of minor annoyances that KiCad users have
come to expect.

Speed: unfortunately there are still platforms were opengl is not usable
and the cairo canvas is unacceptably slow.  Either the cairo canvas will
need a significant increase in performance or someone will have to write
a wxDC painter object or we just keep putting it off until opengl works
well everywhere.

Once these issues are addressed, then we can start talking about
removing the legacy canvas.  Until then, it will have to stay.  I'm not
willing to force users (me) over to it until it's ready for prime time.
None of this should really surprise anyone.  We've discussed it many
times.  Now's your chance to be a hero and step up to the plate and fix
these issues.

Cheers,

Wayne