kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Tiger12506 <tiger12506@xxxxxxxxx>]

I swear the dev the list has completely and utterly hashed this out 
before. Maybe about when the footprint table came into effect. I mean, I 
know you can decide to change things now, but it was long and bitter and 
there was a decision made, I'm sure of it.


On 3/23/2017 8:34 AM, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
> I'm going to weigh in on this because this has been on my radar with the
> symbol library table work I've been doing.  I do agree that we need to
> pick one term and use it consistently.  My preference is the term symbol
> because in my mind this is a component[1] and this is symbolic
> representation[2] of a component ergo symbol.  However, I spent some
> time this week checking out the documentation for all of the major and
> quite a few minor EDA applications and they *all* use the term component
> when talking about libraries.  This makes me think that for the sake of
> uniformity with other EDA applications, we should use the term
> component.  While I'm not a proponent of doing something just because
> that's what everyone else is doing, in this case using the term
> component may make users coming from other EDA apps a bit more
> comfortable.  Personally, I'm comfortable with either term but maybe we
> should not stray to far from the norm here.
>
> [1]:
> http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/stackpole-electronics-inc/CF14JT10K0/CF14JT10K0TR-ND/1741265
> [2]: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Resistor_symbol_America.svg
>
> On 3/23/2017 7:52 AM, Thor-Arne Hovland wrote:
> > Symbol has been used as long as I can remember.
> >
> > The proper names should probably be defined to avoid confusion.
> >
> > In my book:
> > A "symbol" is a generic repesentation for drawing a schematic,
> > and that is whats used in eeschema right now.
> >
> > A "footprint" is the pads and silkscreen ++ used in pcbnew.
> >
> > A "housing" is the physical package i.e. the 3D model.
> >
> > The current way of doing things is a bit confusing and causes
> > many "symbols" to be reused in the library.
> > This is not effective when someting is to be changed.
> >
> > It could be a good idea to introduce a "part" that stores all the needed
> > information like symbol, footprint, pin connections between symbol and
> > footprint,
> > 3D modell, documentation.
> >
> > This might be more intuitive for new user who I see repeatedly trying to
> > match a symbol
> > with pins "G-S-D" to a footprint with pins "1-2-3".
> >
> > Just my 2 cent....
> >
> > -----Original Message----- From: Chris Pavlina
> > Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2017 3:30 AM
> > To: Simon Wells
> > Cc: KiCad Developers
> > Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] UI improvements
> >
> > Are we calling them "symbols" now? Internally they are called with
> > "components" or "parts" depending on whether they are on a schematic...
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 03:25:03PM +1300, Simon Wells wrote:
> > > just a slight segue.... is it not better to refer to symbols rather
> > > than components? as with the footprints being seperated from the
> > > symbols i don't see the justification for calling it a component (will
> > > also require renaming other stuff)
> > >
> > > On 23 March 2017 at 12:12, Chris Pavlina <pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 11:53:40PM +0100, Clemens Koller wrote:
> > > > > Hello, Fabrizio!
> > > > >
> > > > > The horizontal + vertical justify radio buttons could possibly be
> > > > > improved by showing the alignment visually as it's done in [1] by
> > > using >> a 3 x 3 radio button matrix. It can also reduce the number of
> > > clicks to >> 1 to adjust hor + vert simultaneously.
> > > > > The timestamp is not human readable. It seems strange to me to dump
> > > it >> as hex-number on the UI. (WTF!?)
> > > > I'm struggling to think of a use for this. Maybe for power users, to
> > > > jump quickly to the component in the raw sch file by searching for it -
> > > > but why not just search for the reference?
> > > >
> > > > I wonder how many people would complain if I took that out.
> > > >
> > > > > The Component/Chip Name thingy seems to be lost a bit on the lower
> > > > > left. Maybe some sorting of the elements based on the usage/setup
> > > > > procedure as well as logic dependency could do some good.
> > > > >
> > > > > Regards,
> > > > >
> > > > > Clemens
> > > > >
> > > > > [1] https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/File:WG9-9.png
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > On 2017-03-22 10:32, Fabrizio Tappero wrote:
> > > > > > hi guys,
> > > > > > I am looking at some new icons that were introduced in kicad by
> > > the >> > people who made the related functionalities and at the user
> > > > > > experience in general. If any of you guys has any feedback about
> > > > > > possible (aesthetic) UI improvements I would love to know.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Specifically I am looking at this menu.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Inline image 1
> > > > > >
> > > > > > the section "Chip Name" is a part that I use a lot and I find a
> > > > > > little "mysterious". Before going further with a possible patch
> > > to >> > improve a little the usability of it I would like to know if
> > > there is >> > any of you interesting in giving an opinion. I would
> > > love to know >> > from the person who made it what exactly is the Chip
> > > Name section >> > for. I feel it is not so evident to the user.
> > > > > > cheers
> > > > > > Fabrizio
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
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