Alas, yet another person who misunderstands open source and it's authors. First, let me say, there is a lot of crap in the open source world, almost as much as in the shareware world. Just check out sourceforge.net to see a sample. For reference, I write my share of open source code. I just have enough pride not to publish my crappier code.
With that said, a vast majority of apps people have written is because THEY have a need and THEY write their own solution. They know what;'s needed. Two areas where they fall down, first is that most applications like a CAD program is way more than a single individual can conquer. The second is that not every programmer is the best User Interface expert. I like PCB. IT WORKS QUITE WELL! Granted it the board gets too complex, I can see where it would fall down, maybe. I did Nixieneon using gEDA PCB. I tried Eagle and there was no way I was going to be able to place the 60 neon bulbs and their 3 associated components in the rings like they were needed with that tool! I suspect if I just needed the parts on the board and let it do the routing, life would be good. Where I most like PCB is that I don't need a schematic to make a board. I find that I can layout the circuit on the board, then create the schematic after the fact. The board layout is just a bazaar form of a schematic. For reference, I'm thoroughly disgusted with the current crop of low cost CAD programs. If anyone is a good C++ programmer interested in helping me at least investigate what it will take to write one with me, please let me know. I am very well versed with the Qt toolkit. And for reference, I use a programmers editor (CRiSP, what Brief should've become) and Makefiles, not no stinkin' IDEs when I write code. Now my stance on PCB should make more sense! ;) -joe On Saturday 11 September 2010 23:38:42 figureloop wrote: > On Sep 11, 7:30 pm, NeonJohn <[email protected]> wrote: > > It was one of the worst piles of steaming ..... that I looked at. gEDA > > is not a tool set. It is a collection of disparate programs written by > > different authors and linked together with command line format > > conversion programs. > > A typical open source program written by developers for developers. > They simply don't understand users, which simply want a tool that > works. And are often willing to pay for a good one to boot. > > > That was another one that I really wanted to work because I support GNU > > and because of the hype from the True Believers (TM). > > All of the workhorse software that makes my career function has to be > paid for. Even Linux would be unuseable save for the value added by > the distributors. For which they deserve to get paid. LTspice is a > special case. Free for me, but of course it's development cost is > subsidized by LTC. > [edit] > > > I'll have to admit that I went into the project with a chip on my > > shoulder for Eagle because of its unorthodox user interface. I had > > casually tried it several times before and hated it. > > > > But like the other tools, my test was to actually enter the schematic > > for a real product and lay out a board. By the time I got through I > > realized just how well we were working together, Eagle and me. Enough > > that I popped for the package out of my own pocket. > > Since I've only ever used Eagle on Linux, where there is just no > standard of UI behavior whatsoever, I've never noticed anything funny > about Eagle. > > > Eagle has some warts. There are lots of errors in the footprint > > libraries, especially those supplied by part vendors. Apparently no one > > at Eagle checks the part before it is incorporated into the library. My > > habit is now to check each new footprint in the footprint editor before > > I lay it down on a board. Someone wrote a program to convert all the > > Eagle libraries to KiCAD libraries so be aware that the same problems > > exist there. Silly stuff like no solder mask on one side or the other. > > Stuff like that. > > Yes, be careful with part libs! > > > I REALLY hated to have to go with a pay package, both because of the > > nick to my wallet as well as my support for Open Source software. > > > > John > > I don't mind paying for good software. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB.
