kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Chris Pavlina <pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Sep 18, 2016 at 05:03:33PM -0400, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
> 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.

I don't see a problem with starting to segment things off now for easy
removal later. It will be nice if, when the time comes to remove legacy,
it's easy to do - right?

> 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
> 
> 
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