kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Andy Peters <devel@xxxxxxxxx>]

> On Jun 12, 2019, at 2:38 PM, Adam Wolf <adamwolf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> Seeing Seppe's patch made me think of something I tried to do last
> time, but ended up running out of time.
> 
> What do folks think about changing the data directory for macOS to
> have the major version, to make it a little easier to run KiCad 5 and
> 6 on the same computer?  Am I opening a can of worms?

“data directory” as in where the libraries etc are stored?

Currently in ~/Library/Application Support/kicad or /Library/Application Support/kicad ??

Possibly changed to ~/Library/Application Support/kicad 5/ and ~/Library/Application Support/kicad 6/ for example?

I don’t have a problem with it, but the question is how to manage it. Assume that everyone who already has Kicad installed is using the “default” location. When the user upgrades to a new major version, perhaps on first run it should ask about the library locations.

But there’s a complication … do those locations exist?

As part of that first run, should the new version offer to upgrade existing libraries and store them in the new location?

(And what does that do to users who keep libraries in source-code control and the libraries on the computers live in working copies?)

I mean, I agree that if the intent is to be able to run Kicad 5 and Kicad 6 on the same machine and those versions have incompatible libraries then yes, we need to be able to tell those two installs where their libraries live.

Of course, if Kicad 6 can use Kicad 5’s libraries as is, then there is no need for the distinction.

Yes, can of worms indeed.

-a