kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Diego Herranz <diegoherranz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks, Rene

On 4 Nov 2017 4:06 pm, "Rene Pöschl" <poeschlr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 03/11/17 21:34, Diego Herranz wrote:

> 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/ <
> 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?
>
A user might want do download an older or newer version of the lib than is
offered with their software version. (Maybe because they want to open a
project designed with this version of the lib.)

And there is talk about giving users the option to get a small installer
without libs. (Some users have data constrains. The installer is now nearly
1GB including all the 3d model libs.)
It might also be a good idea to decouple the library release cycle from the
software release cycle.

I understand. We may want to explain that not to make users think they
*need* to download them. I may submit a patch.




- 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?
>
The github plugin in general is a bad idea. It grabs the current master
head and downloads everything in every session. (At least everytime it
needs information about footprints for the first time in this session.) It
does not even use git but pulls a zip archive.

Another problem of having the github plugin is that the libs of the user
get out of sync. So the symbol libs and 3d model libs stay at the version
they where at the release of the installed software version. But the
footprint libs get every change we make in the repos. (This means that if
we rename a footprint, the footprint filters defined in the symbol might no
longer work. Or if we change the scaling of the 3d model this will produce
wrongly scaled results in the 3d viewer until the user manually downloads
newer 3d models.)

Because we decided to kill the one repo per footprint lib nonsense for the
v5 release the current github plugin will no longer work there. (So you
could say the download page is already prepared for the v5 release.)
Unless of course someone fixes the github plugin such that it supports one
large repo that holds all footprint libs. (But i would not suggest to use
it as the default option, because it has the major drawbacks mentioned
above.)

Thanks, I understand it a bit better now.





- 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.
>
If i read the conversations on the mailing list correctly then kicad 5 will
include a symbol table for managing symbols.
We could of course add a pointer to the documentation of this stuff. But i
don't really know where it would fit.


- I would maybe mention kicad-packages3d-source (maybe in brackets)
>
good idea

Again, I may submit a patch.



- I would add links to the repos in "Future of the Libraries"
>
I think oliver is already designing a better version of the download page.
Have a look at the other library related conversation here on the mailing
list.
https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg31312.html

I think that's different from the landing download page, but not sure how
both would interact.



- 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.
>
done

mfg Rene Pöschl


Many thanks for your help, Rene.
Diego