kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Andy Peters <devel@xxxxxxxxx>]

> On Dec 31, 2017, at 6:49 AM, Simon Wells <swel024@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:swel024@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> 
> What about having the default set to cairo, and when the first/once run dialog runs it talks about openGL (this goes against you already set to GAL) but it allows a default that even if it crashes won’t require manually editing a configuration to make it workable

User perspective:

The names for the canvases are “engineering terms,” that is, something named by the developers for their own internal use but were never renamed for the end user who might have no idea what is meant by “Cairo canvas” or what “GAL” stands for. I say that because early on I asked myself, “WTF is this ‘Cairo’ thing?”

I now understand (I think …) that Cairo and GAL implement the same features but the latter requires proper OpenGL hardware and drivers, and Cairo does not.

So perhaps better terms for these options is “Standard” and “Accelerated (OpenGL).” Users know what OpenGL means (I hope, it’s nothing new). As for why a user with access to OpenGL hardware would not choose to use it by default? Battery life on a laptop, I suppose, but in using Kicad for a few years now I can say I’ve never used the Cairo canvas at all.

-a




> Simon
> 
>> On 1/01/2018, at 2:48 AM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>> 
>> I spite of my disdain for nagware, I'll tolerate this under the
>> following conditions:
>> 
>> The current canvas is not already on one of the gal canvases.  If the
>> user is already using a gal canvas, a dialog to inform the user about
>> the gal canvas is silly.
>> 
>> It's a one shot dialog that never appears again.
>> 
>> If the gal canvas crashes, the user isn't going to have to manually edit
>> a configuration file to restore the legacy canvas.  This requirement may
>> prevent us from setting the opengl canvas as the default so the solution
>> may not be as easy as it seems.
>> 
>> On 12/31/2017 07:34 AM, Jeff Young wrote:
>>> +1 to the startup dialog idea.
>>> 
>>> I think we also need to set reasonable transparencies in the layers so that it looks more like the default legacy canvas.
>> 
>> I don' think this is necessary given that the gal canvas layer colors
>> and transparencies are completely user configurable but I'm not opposed
>> to a default layer color/transparency configuration that looks more like
>> the legacy canvas.
>> 
>>> 
>>>> On 31 Dec 2017, at 10:09, Clemens Koller <cko@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:cko@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> On 2017-12-31 03:53, Jon Evans wrote:
>>>>> I know this would be work for someone to do and maybe I'd offer to do it if the project leaders approve...
>>>>> What about a one-time pop-up when first installing a release 5.0 that appears if the config says the user was using legacy canvas, telling them about how to switch and that they should check it out?
>>>>> 
>>>>> -Jon
>>>> 
>>>> +1
>>>> An initial start-up dialog to setup the "users default" after a first install or after a "reset Kicad to defaults, as I messed something up I don't remember" seems very helpful to me. If OpenGL might still crash in rare cases, warn the user in advance and explain, how he can safely step back from using OpenGL in case it doesn't work and how to file a bug report...
>>>> 
>>>> Regards,