On 5/2/2012 12:32 PM, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
On 05/01/2012 04:35 PM, Miguel Angel Ajo Pelayo wrote:
2012/5/1 Dick Hollenbeck<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
On 05/01/2012 10:02 AM, Miguel Angel Ajo Pelayo wrote:
> We can read and write libraries now with the latest extensions to PLUGIN
that Dick&
> Wayne did :)
> now it always use legacy, but they will work with all formats. :-)
>
> [...]
Only 7 lines of code which show how powerful the scripting support is
becoming.
Thank you very much Miguel. I look forward to playing with it, some day
when I have
more
time.
You're welcome Dick , I think we all are putting a lot of effort to make next
KiCad's
release something
awesome.
I'm using the new library functionality to make some nice little footprint
wizard
examples, and I'm thinking about
how to build a simple architecture to let people "plug in" new footprint wizard
scripts.
Miguel,
Your enthusiasm for the project has become an important asset of the project in
and of
itself. I personally appreciate all that you do.
With the introduction of some sensible "software interfaces" we are now
starting to see
some benefits. The original idea for the BOARD plugin framework should be
credited to Tom
and Javier of CERN. From that I was able to actually design something
workable. As
simple as possible, but not simpler.
Wayne has been faithful to that software API contract, and is in the midst of
writing one
of the most important classes ever contributed to KiCad. We're calling it
PCB_IO. This
class is a normal PLUGIN for our new native s-expression support in mm, but has
special
bells and whistles on it for clipboard text generation and parsing. This work
is being
funded by CERN, so we owe them a special thanks. (Some selling took place to
get this
funding, and I will claim some responsibility there. Selling is not foreign to
me.)
On my todo list is an EAGLE plugin. (My todo list is like a personal wish
list. Wishes
only come true based on available time, energy and mood.)
Now imagine that you, Miguel, write a world class footprint wizard, or a
framework that
lets others do their little twist to it. Maybe as you say, it is a housing for
any number
of footprint wizards, each with a particular specialization. Then, with this
design in
place, imagine being able to generate eagle footprints or kicad footprints,
without any
change to your code, or to the code within the wizards. It is not
inconceivable that
eagle users will come just to use the footprint wizards.
Another benefit of this PLUGIN API design, is that we are positioned to climb
to a
superset position in both BOARD and in MODULE. This is because the API is
based on those
objects, and as we write additional plugins, it is not inconceivable that we
may chose to
add features to our core C++ objects in order to handle them some other format.
This
means we are positioned to assimilate and extend as needed.
So yes, there is a hell of a lot going on here. And there are a lot of people
contributing.
It is really great to see so many people stepping up and making great
contributions to KiCad. Thank you all for you continued support.
Wayne
Dick
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