X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to geda-user-bounces using -f
X-Recipient: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
X-TCPREMOTEIP: 72.130.189.202
X-Authenticated-UID: jpd AT noqsi DOT com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 7.3 \(1878.6\))
Subject: Re: [geda-user] on the choice of languages
From: John Doty <jpd AT noqsi DOT com>
In-Reply-To: <1423934635.760.7.camel@cam.ac.uk>
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2015 09:16:57 -1000
Message-Id: <749069FC-424B-4516-A37A-735CF9052EB9@noqsi.com>
References: <mblhhr$uvp$1 AT ger DOT gmane DOT org> <CAOuGh89uhX3p+=AbcgZ20gen0hP4rg9FngAaMo3d4HVQ3bF0ow AT mail DOT gmail DOT com> <mbltsv$ae2$1 AT ger DOT gmane DOT org> <alpine DOT DEB DOT 2 DOT 00 DOT 1502140527190 DOT 7324 AT igor2priv> <1423934635 DOT 760 DOT 7 DOT camel AT cam DOT ac DOT uk>
To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1878.6)
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by delorie.com id t1EJH8Sh000925
Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
Errors-To: nobody AT delorie DOT com
X-Mailing-List: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
X-Unsubscribes-To: listserv AT delorie DOT com
Precedence: bulk


On Feb 14, 2015, at 7:23 AM, Peter Clifton <pcjc2 AT cam DOT ac DOT uk> wrote:

> If you dug into the code, you would find that the VAST majority of
> geda/gaf is written in C.

Yes, but to contribute to that, you really need to be part of the inner circle. One nice thing about scripting gEDA is that you can write something useful and publish it on gedasymbols or github. The strange tribal sensitivities of the inner circle don’t affect you. It is, however, harder for users to find and integrate your contribution.

>  Only the (appallingly badly written - sorry!)

> net-list backends make extensive use of scheme code.

I would dispute that they are *all* badly written. But the important thing is that many of them are actually useful. Their authors often didn’t understand Scheme very well, but they got real work done regardless. I appreciate that. That’s why a good API for add-ons is important. The Scheme API for gnetlist is a bit quirky, but its functionality is excellent for most netlist and BOM formats. Unfortunately, once you hit the limits of that functionality you can’t easily get farther. Mastering Guile’s FFI looks difficult (I haven’t tried), and there I’d be encroaching on tribal territory.

John Doty              Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd.
http://www.noqsi.com/
jpd AT noqsi DOT com