kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Seth Hillbrand <seth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2020-02-05 09:30, Brian wrote:
> Hello friends,
>
> I've talked about my ODBC back-end for symbol and footprint libraries
> a few times.  I originally developed it on an early 5.something, and
> parts of it got broken with the latest 5.x.  I haven't been doing a
> lot of EDA work, so it hasn't been a priority to fix, but I'm gearing
> up for some new designs and figured it's time to tackle it again.
>
> So my question:  If I want a stable, reliably-usable KiCad environment
> to do actual EDA work in, should I be basing my ODBC mods on the
> latest 5.x or 6?  If I do base it on 5.x, will that be wasted effort
> when 6 becomes more "stable"?
>
> Also related, a while back there was some talk about developing an
> actual dynamic-load plug-in system for KiCad.  I had indicated some
> interest in contributing to that goal, but my own minor efforts
> definitely died on the vine.  Has anything come of that?  Are there
> any design documents folks have put together?
>
> Cheers,
> -Brian

Hi Brian-

All work should be based on v6.  No features will be added to v5.  v6 
has changed sufficiently that any work based on v5 will likely be lost 
when v6 is released.

v6 is unstable.  That said, I produce regular boards using it and I know 
of a few others who do the same.  If you do this, get into the habit of 
using git to check in your work regularly.  This will limit the 
potential loss in the event of bugs.

There is no dynamic loading system planned beyond what exists now.  
There will be a new Python-based plugin system in v6.

Seth Hillbrand
KiCad Services Corporation
https://www.kipro-pcb.com
+1 530 302 5483 | +1 212 603 9372