Mail Archives: geda-user/2014/08/03/12:34:11
On 08/03/2014 08:58 AM, Stefan Salewski wrote:
> Yesterday I wrote some minimal description of the intended behaviour of
> my gschem clone, see
>
> http://www.ssalewski.de/PetEd.html.en
>
> In first line this is for myself -- to motivate me to continue the
> cleanup process and to ensure that my cleanups will not change the
> intended behaviour...
>
> Recently someone pointed me to one of these commercial Web-based editors
> -- this one is from Digikey called SchemeIt, see link at bottom of my
> page. I can remember I have tested a similar tool about one year ago for
> a few seconds -- looked not really bad. Some people say that this kind
> of Web-based tools is the future -- is someone really using it?
>
> And schematics and PCB layout on smartphone and tablets -- I can
> remember that some people said that that is the future. I still can not
> really imagine how this should work, and I have not seen such Apps yet.
> Is someone using it, and is it really the future? Or is someone of you
> already working on such an App?
I can't imagine it either.
But keep in mind one important concept, one which most people seem to
have forgotten: We are not all just "passengers" in stuff like this. We
are steering where this stuff is going, these use cases and work
methodologies. We don't have to just "follow along" with "what everyone
else is doing", because what happens if everyone just does that? Nobody
steers, much to the delight of salesmen everywhere.
A very bad side-effect of nobody steering is that SOMEONE will notice
this and start taking advantage of the situation. That's usually
salespeople and suits, and they usually gravitate toward creating vendor
lock-in situations. That's what's going to happen with these silly
"web-based design" tools. Sure, they'll say "Oh, your data is safe, you
can download it!" ...but nobody actually WILL, and when those companies
close up shop, or someone in China starts selling a board that looks
suspiciously like yours, you're S-O-L.
So, don't worry about what "is the future". Decide what works best,
using your wisdom and experience, and DO it, and don't let some salesman
tell you otherwise. Smart people will likely independently converge on
related (if not actually similar) solutions, and dumb people,
well...they can pay us for our advice.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ/3
New Kensington, PA
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