HI,
Why not the agnostic take: allow that there could easily be two levels of users like
in
some mature FOSS projects -- user-developers, and users. Yeah, they sound userous,
but they only get to reap what they sow. It evens out. So, we could still have
some M4,
and iff, (if and only if), we have a wide open file format for exactly specifying the
footprints that is
either "used directly by" pcb or translated painlessly into and out of pcb, then we
could
have user contribs of footprints generated by python scripts, bash scripts calling m4,
and
text editing in emacs, and handmade footprint layouts with mouse resolution off-grid
shapes
appearing occasionally and they could all co-exist. I think the important thing is
not how a footprint
gets made, but how it is documented, "used directly by pcb" and how it is backed up by
a BLOG about
results gotten while using it for real board production. The Gencam or IPC board
guidelines are only
heuristic cookbook formulas -- they're not "golden". To be a reasonable risk is all
pcb footprints need to be,
not golden. They don't ned to be generated by anyone in particular -- IPC, etc. just
vouched for by one reliable or several
reliable board making users of them. who will set up a web site for creating such a
database wiki style with
full automation of stats on successful boards made by which fabber, under what
conditions with
no censorship? Kinda like the ratings of buyers and sellers of each other on ebay...
by the sheer numbers.
JG
Stuart Brorson wrote > Not at all. I don't really care how they are created as long
as they are
> > correct and consistent. Consistent is why I like the new format. So
> > using a macro language to generate a file of the new format would be
> > rather invissible to the pattern's end user.
>
> My $0.02: Steve is right -- the user shouldn't ever be exposed to M4.
======
If I have to install the bloated pig that is Perl in order to use
PCB, I will find another layout package.
Existing, perfectly functional, fast, builds-and-runs-on-EVERYTHING
tools are not an appropriate battleground for the PerlTribesmen to try
to infect.
-Dave
