X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to geda-user-bounces using -f
X-Recipient: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
Date: Sat, 6 May 2023 13:46:59 +0200 (CEST)
From: Roland Lutz <rlutz AT hedmen DOT org>
To: "Richard Rasker (rasker AT linetec DOT nl) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com]" <geda-user AT delorie DOT com>
Subject: Re: [geda-user] Re: Intractable error message 'could not find refdes
 on component ... '
In-Reply-To: <27387063-1baa-8905-4b41-a99c81fde2d6@linetec.nl>
Message-ID: <9b1da9df-b3f3-4fe6-7cc2-1bbdc2bfb281@grinsen-ohne-katze.de>
References: <xncz5nvzvd DOT fsf AT envy DOT delorie DOT com> <0350ae12-d97f-3fc0-f146-c83066c0e695 AT linetec DOT nl> <CAJZxidB2RihL-CwFDUuaG9tnkUz-yNeQrRqaFaGZYQKR-c8Tww AT mail DOT gmail DOT com> <48f8fe1f-b377-be59-6493-5d61140fdc13 AT linetec DOT nl> <s6nmt4pn5xz DOT fsf AT psjt DOT org>
 <407d4f7a-f529-b0bd-de4f-39fd357cb7c0 AT linetec DOT nl> <774de29a-806b-8dc3-84ee-770330b1fd0e AT linetec DOT nl> <27387063-1baa-8905-4b41-a99c81fde2d6 AT linetec DOT nl>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="8323329-179796387-1683373619=:1992"
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

  This message is in MIME format.  The first part should be readable text,
  while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.

--8323329-179796387-1683373619=:1992
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT

Hi Richard,

On Fri, 5 May 2023, Richard Rasker (rasker AT linetec DOT nl) [via 
geda-user AT delorie DOT com] wrote:
> Maybe a bit of an awkward observation, but it appears that more recent 
> incarnations of gschem and pcb […] enforce stricter rules that break 
> older designs in several different ways.

gnetlist used to have undefined behavior in a lot of situations resulting 
in subtle bugs in the design.  For example, a large SMD board at my 
university would be missing one in row of identical transistors; this had 
to be discovered and patched in by hand.  In order to prevent this kind of 
error, I decided to have gnetlist fail rather than "just output something" 
if it encountered a situation that was likely to result in a problem.

> I used to have the net:pin definition "net=[name]:1" (not visible), 
> together with "netname=[name]" (visible) -- but for some reason, it is 
> no longer allowed to have both a net and a netname attribute defined.

This is prone to errors: someone may change the netname= attribute but not 
realize that there is a net= attribute to be changed as well, resulting in 
one net being displayed and another net being connected.  Therefore, 
recent versions of gnetlist honor the netname= attribute directly but 
require the redundant net= attribute and the pinumber= attribute on the 
pin to be removed.

So, the "canonical" fix would be to use a new-style power symbol (or just 
create a copy of the old one minus the two attributes) and remove the net= 
attribute.

> Virtually every older project that I created now throws numerous errors 
> when I try to open and/or modify it, causing a lot of extra work.

I'm sorry about that!  I added these checks to avoid more costly errors 
later, but I guess I made them a bit too strict...

Roland

--8323329-179796387-1683373619=:1992--