kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Tomasz Wlostowski <tomasz.wlostowski@xxxxxxx>]

On 07/03/18 23:04, Ouabache Designworks wrote:
> 
> 
> On Mon, Mar 5, 2018 at 9:57 AM, Jon Evans <jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi all,
> 
>     Since my day job involves a lot of engineering
>     planning/timelines/etc, I've had this rolling around in my head...
>     I started brainstorming some proposed changes to the roadmaps.
> 
>     I am using Google drive because that's what is easiest for me to
>     play with; I'm happy to send patches against the official roadmaps
>     if get some buy-in for this.
> 
>     Feel free to comment (either directly on the doc or by email) with
>     thoughts on this.
> 
>     https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mpxqvxLv497cyfk8KTQijhySSpFxF7ooTtcT_HU86kw/edit#
>     <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mpxqvxLv497cyfk8KTQijhySSpFxF7ooTtcT_HU86kw/edit#>
> 
>     Basically what I am proposing is to put most of the energy into
>     Eeschema for 6.0, with changes to other parts of the software
>     basically being "whatever people have time left over for". 
>     Everything else has been bumped to 7.0
> 
>     -Jon
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> My wishlist:
> 
> Follow the unix philosophy. All programs must do one thing and do it
> well. You solve complex problems by chaining simple tools together. If
> you don't then your tool becomes bloated and hard to use and maintain.
> EEschema is heading down this path and we need to strip it down to
> EEschema Lite and put the ancillary features in their own programs.
> 
> 
Dear John,

Which features you think should go to separate programs?

Bear in mind that most PCB designers don't like the 'unix-style'
workflow, if by that you mean writing makefiles, shell scripts or other
programming just to stitch different 'independent programs that do their
particular jobs well' together. Furthermore, it doesn't only apply to
PCB or schematics design, but to any graphical application. Show me one
example of a truly successful graphical editing program (be that CAD,
bitmap editor or a vector graphics editor) that is not 'bloated' or
conforms fully to the 'unix philosophy'. By successful I mean used by a
major number of professionals.


> Design for BIG data. The rules don't change for big data but they are
> more rigorously enforced. PCB's are usually small enough that you can
> ignore the rules and still succeed but you will never be able to handle
> to large workloads that IC and system designers handle on a daily basis.
> Why should you  care? Because you receive deliverables from both of
> those groups and if you could offer them a decent open source schematic
> editor then they will make their deliverables in kicad formated files.
> 
> Your libraries are getting into the realm of big data. Most of the
> complaints about libraries on the forum stem from trying to solve big
> data problems with small data solutions. Ask yourselves if this would
> work for the Library of Congress and if it won't then don't try it.
> 
This is worth considering. Thanks.
> 
> Create a Pad Mux tool that lets you codesign the IC package and pinout
> as part of the IC design team. That is the ultimate in pin swapping
> capability.
> 
Kicad is a PCB design tool. We don't aim to become an IC design tool.

Tom