On Friday 03 March 2006 08:59, Dan McMahill wrote: > I think what we need is early on in the documentation to have a quick > and to the point definition of terms. Unfortunately, there is not an > industry standard among cad tools so such a section (I'm thinking a page > or less) would be a big help. For example, what we call a "footprint" > in PCB is a "pattern" or a "stencil" in a couple of other tools. > > -Dan
I don't mean to push Eagle, but it too shows this sort of variance. * Package: Generic collection of pads/holes and silk on the board - 8 pads with 100 mil pad spacing and 300 mil row spacing, three pads in a triangle pattern with 100 mil pad spacing and a tabbed circle around the group... * Symbol: Generic collection of lines and pin connections - a box with 8 generic pins, a circle with three lines and an arrow... * Device: Final mating of the two concepts, the actual unit used to populate a schematic diagram and the associated board - DIL 555 timer, TO-18 2N2222 transistor... It's not such a big deal for me now that I know what a slot is and what refdes means, but what about the next noob who tries to use gEDA? Since there's at least one program that uses more common words, I think it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect gEDA to eventually follow suit. A more understandable interface means more users, and more users (ideally) means more bug reports and feedback. -- "Sometimes paranoia can be helpful. Usually it isn't, and when you learn that, life improves." Vanessa Dannenberg
