kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Diego Herranz <diegoherranz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

First of all, I think all the recent work around the libraries is great!
Thanks to everyone involved. I think sometimes libraries are underestimated
(not just in KiCad). If KiCad manages to have extensive, high-quality and
clearly arranged libraries, many more users will end up using it.

Having said that, I've used Kicad for some time and even contributed some
code but still can't fully understand how all the library stuff works. It
is the most common complaint I read about KiCad by newbies and somehow I
feel myself in a similar situation.

So, I've reviewed http://kicad-pcb.org/libraries/download/ with my lack of
library understanding and will try to provide some feedback from that view:

- It seems to imply that the user needs to download the libraries from
there. However they come with the installer, don't they?
- It says "Users who wish to keep their libraries up to date with the
latest additions should clone the library repositories using Git.". But,
does that apply to footprint libraries? I think my installs have always
gone to github for those. Is that true? Do they grab the latest or a
specific tag?
- I would explain the differences between schematic (old style,
per project) and layout libraries (new table style, per project or global).
Also in "Future of the Libraries" explain the new symbol table, etc.
- I would maybe mention kicad-packages3d-source (maybe in brackets)
- I would add links to the repos in "Future of the Libraries"
- If anything of what I said doesn't make sense or it's wrong, please let
me know. I'd love to understand it better.

Many thanks,
Diego


On Wed, Nov 1, 2017 at 9:32 PM, Oliver Walters <
oliver.henry.walters@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Thanks Nick! Really happy to have this running on the website! I think a
> blog post would be a good idea, I'll see if I can make some words
>
> On Thu, Nov 2, 2017 at 8:14 AM, Nick Østergaard <oe.nick@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Hello
>>
>> I will just announce that I merged the pull request. I hope this will aid
>> in getting the librarians to feel more part of the "official" KiCad, if
>> they didn't before. I am glad that we have motivated librarians around.
>>
>> I will encourage Oliver and Co. to write an article to the "blog" section
>> if they see fit. http://kicad-pcb.org/post/
>>
>> Nick
>>
>> 2017-10-18 17:04 GMT+02:00 Oliver Walters <oliver.henry.walters@xxxxxxxxx
>> >:
>>
>>> I have been working on this for a while, and have submitted the first
>>> version here - https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-website/pull/219
>>>
>>> On Thu, Sep 14, 2017 at 10:01 PM, Oliver Walters <
>>> oliver.henry.walters@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi everyone,
>>>>
>>>> The conversation of how best to manage and distribute KiCad libraries
>>>> has been raging for a while now.
>>>>
>>>> Users looking to download or contribute to the libraries are currently
>>>> presented with a github landing page and some bland wiki pages (e.g. for
>>>> the KLC information).
>>>>
>>>> I have been working on a new-and-improved website system for the
>>>> following:
>>>>
>>>> * Clear information about the libraries
>>>> * A place to download the latest libraries
>>>> * Information on what is *in* the libraries
>>>> * Instructions on how to contribute to the libs
>>>> * Better presentation of the KLC
>>>>
>>>> This website will need to be updated periodically to present the latest
>>>> version of the libraries to the users. Also, if users are going to be
>>>> downloading library files then it could potentially use a lot of bandwidth.
>>>> Thirdly, the generated content should be scripted but statically hosted.
>>>>
>>>> The solution? GitHub pages! - https://pages.github.com/ -
>>>>
>>>> These are hosted from your github repository, and for e.g. ours would
>>>> have the URL kicad.github.io - this could be easily redirected from
>>>> kicad-lib.org/library (for example).
>>>>
>>>> GitHub pages use the jekyll toolset to generate static content.
>>>>
>>>> With a small amount of additional Python scripting I have created a
>>>> bare-bones example of what this might look like (locally hosted on my
>>>> laptop for now):
>>>>
>>>> Here are some screenshots! Ignore the colors and simple layout scheme,
>>>> this is currently just a framework.
>>>>
>>>> https://imgur.com/a/0GELG
>>>>
>>>> The main objectives of this project are:
>>>>
>>>> a) Present a more professional landing page for the libraries
>>>> b) Leverage GitHub Pages functionality
>>>> c) Improve KLC
>>>>
>>>> And, eventually:
>>>>
>>>> Provide a standardised way to separate the KiCad libraries from the
>>>> KiCad installer!
>>>>
>>>> Thoughts and comments appreciated!
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>
>>>> Oliver
>>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>
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