kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Jeff Young <jeff@xxxxxxxxx>]

The eeschema Save button’s tooltip reads “save schematic project” (emphasis mine).  Because of that, it got the project-with-superimposed-disk in the recent icon update.  I don’t think either of those is optimal.

There are 3 distinct concepts:

1) Kicad projects (containing schematics, PCBs, gerbers, etc.)
2) A hierarchy of schematic sheets
3) A single schematic sheet

The differentiation between (2) and (3) is a bit confusing because the eeschema window only deals with (2) while we represent schemas in the file-system at (3).

But we should make every effort not to conflate (1) with (2).  I think the word “project” should be reserved for use in the context of (1).

So I can see 4 options for the eeschema Save option:

a) sidestep the issue and go with the arrow-to-disk icon (a la pcbnew)
b) use a schematic-with-superimposed-disk icon
c) use a stacked-schematic-with-superimposed-disk icon (a la the hierarchical-sheet-tool icon)
d) context-sensitive schematic or stacked-schematic icon

And a few for the tooltip:

i) use “save all schematics in hierarchy”
ii) use “save schematic(s)” 
iii) make it context-sensitive, reading either “save schematic” or “save all schematics in hierarchy”

Personally, I think context-sensitivity is appropriate for the tool-tip, but not the icon.  So I’d be inclined to go with (b) or (c) and (iii).

As an aside, project files (*.pro) are still using the application icon, rather than the Project icon.  That makes the New Project / New Project from Template / Open Project icons harder to understand.

Cheers,
Jeff.

BTW: I’m happy to help fix up any of these issues….