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	Sat, 12 Jan 2013 21:34:05 -0800 (PST)
From:	Ben Gamari <bgamari DOT foss AT gmail DOT com>
To:	geda-user AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	[geda-user] geda-skeleton-project: Lowering the cost of a starting a gEDA project
User-Agent:	Notmuch/0.14+240~g0ab5e9f (http://notmuchmail.org) Emacs/23.4.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
Date:	Sun, 13 Jan 2013 00:34:03 -0500
Message-ID:	<87wqvhd4tw.fsf@gmail.com>
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Reply-To:	geda-user AT delorie DOT com

In my experience, assembling the framework for efficiently integrating
gschem, pcb, gnetlist, and the like is one of the more significant
barriers one must pass in adopting gEDA. While the highly modular nature
of the gEDA toolchain offers power and flexibility, a fair amount of
machinery is necessary to make all of these tools work cohesively. This
is especially challenging for people unfamiliar with gEDA and its
philosophy.

This weekend I took some time to distill a skeleton gEDA project from
one of my recent designs. The resulting tree can now be found on
Github[1] and includes,

  * a script to automate the initial configuration of the project
  * a Makefile for performing some common tasks (e.g. generating
    tragesym symbols, updating the pcb layout, and exporting gerbers)
  * some documentation describing use of the initialization script and
    Makefile
  * further discussion to clarify a few common questions about the
    toolchain
  
I'm hoping folks will find this useful, if even as only an example of
how one might structure a gEDA project. Having used the toolchain for
some time now, it is frustrating to see that so many open hardware
projects continue to be designed in Eagle and the like. It is my goal
that this release will lower the barrier to entry of our excellent
toolchain and facilitate adoption by casual users.

If you can see any way the project or its documentation might be
improved, I'd be happy to consider pull requests or feedback.

Cheers,

- Ben


[1] https://github.com/bgamari/skeleton-geda-project

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