kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Diego Herranz <diegoherranz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I've just submitted a pull request (
https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-website/pull/236) trying to make a bit more
clear when/why you need to update the libraries. Also adding links to
github lib repos. Comments welcome :)

Thanks,
Diego

On Sun, Nov 5, 2017 at 10:33 PM, Diego Herranz <
diegoherranz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 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
>
>
>