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Re: [PATCH] Rearrange Render panel of PcbNew layer widget; add spacers

 

2018-02-22 23:05 GMT+02:00 Tiger12506 <tiger12506@xxxxxxxxx>:

> I agree 100% on separate file. As someone who puts kicad files in git, the
> most irritating thing in the world is having unrelated changes in your
> diff. Separate file gives you the flexibility to have either situation --
> if you want the vcs to track it, you include the file, if you don't, your
> vcs ignores the file. It's unfortunate that there are already UI states in
> any of the files that represent a design.
>
> Cheers. :)
>
>
I agree, too. As a both end user and someone who has studied usability I
know the current situation creates unnecessary cognitive and emotinal
stress for the end user. Many times a user can't be sure or can't remember
what he/she actually did or if he did something by accident. Seeing the
message that something was changed is disturbing because you can't know
what happened and what will be saved. If the non-design-related data would
be in a separate file it wouldn't even have to be asked about IMO because
it's safe to save always, it's not critical data in any way.

But about the compatibility between versions - what kind of compatibility
would be needed? I just tried deleting the layers section from a board
file. Pcbnew opened it happily. So, let's suppose v5.1 is released later
with this change in file format: extra data is not stored in the kicad_pcb
file but in another file. If the project is created with 5.1 then 5.0 can
read it, it just doesn't restore the layer visibility. How serious would
that be? If the project was created with 5.0, then 5.1 could also handle it
(if the code which reads the file wasn't changed). It could either save the
data in the compatible way or take it off from the design file and move it
to the other file.

How KiCad reacts to removing other non-design data from the file, I don't
know.

Eeli Kaikkonen

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