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From: Kai-Martin Knaak <kmk AT familieknaak DOT de>
Subject: Re: [geda-user] The state of gEDA/gaf (Was gEDA/PCBs diversity, Was: Pin hole size)
Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2012 02:07:35 +0200
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Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com

Markus Hitter wrote:

> Fritzing wins, because those people doing their first projects with
> Fritzing will never even try with gEDA. 

IMHO, kicad is the much more powerful contender. It gained quite some 
momentum over the years. In 2006 when looked for an open sourced EDA 
suite, kicad was more or less a one-man-show. The website was a single 
page at some french university. And the UI was lacking in many so ways 
that even geda/pcb in their 2006 form felt way more comfortable. All 
of this has changed for the better. The website is just one example 
  http://www.kicad-pcb.org 
(Did you note the smiley next to the join-us button?)

In some ways, geda is still in front (e.g. kicad developer still work 
on nm internal resolution). In other aspects kicad pulled ahead (e.g. 
real scripting) and of cource 3D rendered designs. There is a reason 
why CERN people chose kicad last year when they were looking for an 
open sourceed EDA to implement.


> And if they do, they'll run
> away the same minute, because they can't even rotate an item. That
> simple.

If they don't, they'll still run away a few hours later, because the 
default library is so thin that it needs maintainance before it can 
actually be used. If they still don't, they'll rethink their decision 
again, when they discover that the official manual is officially 
outdated. (E.g. look for command line parameters in the pcb manual)


> And yes, I've seen that many times. gEDAs awkward user interface /
> mouse button mapping / inconsistent behaviour is about the biggest
> complaint I receive when asking people to participate in projects I
> maintain.

+1
Thankfully, at my place, the alternative is eagle, which is a good 
match in awkwardness ;-) 


>> A fine example of the problem is LyX, ...

Not true, either. Even way back in 1999 when I wrote my thesis with 
LyX, the projects mission already stated clearly that they see latex 
as a back-engine -- not LyX as a front-end to latex. They added, that 
they do not intend to support import of every latex source code 
possible. They failed to reach a goal they did not aim for :-)


> Again you do the assumption modernizing the user interface would
> make your older designs unusable. There's no reason for this 
> assumption.  

Me and others have pointed this out to John time and again. None of 
you stands a chance to convince the other. Maybe, it is best to agree 
to disagree about this specific argument...

---<)kaimartin(>---
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak