What I'd really like is for Protel99SE to run correctly under Wine. Altera Quartus web edition runs under wine (ironically), but wine can't seem to handle programs written in delphi very well...
I say ironically for quartus web edition, since most of the tools have unix-based backends that require cygwin to run, so they are unix tools ported to windows, running under a windows emulation layer in linux. To install the other programs mentioned in other posts is as easy as "sudo apt-get install geda" or "sudo apt-get install kicad" to install either of them under my distribution (ubuntu), so you don't have to worry about compiling on that system. Or, you can do it in synaptic if you're more graphically-inclined. As to the notion that command-line tools are somehow "unprofessional" or "klunky", well I would have to respectfully disagree. The beauty of command-line tools (and particularly those that input/output ascii) is that they can be chained together arbitrarily with pipes and fifos, and invoked via makefiles. Then any old IDE or editor can be used to run them, which gives much greater flexibility for the designer. I use the altera design tools that way: invoked from a Makefile, which allows me to add extra information to the programming file like build number, build date and so on. Not to mention I am not bound to the (IMO poor) editor shipped with Quartus, I can use Programmers Notepad under windows and kdevelop under linux. The build tools I use (make/sed/awk/bash) are common to the avr tools I run, so jumping from altera to avr development is a snap. Back to topic, though; the main impediment to jumping to a different eda tool is familiarity with protel. I use 99SE for all my design work, and since I'm not a full-time PCB designer I can't afford to spend a lot of time learning a different tool. A shame, really, because it's basically the only thing that keeps me on windows rather than linux. Cheers, Matthew van de Werken - Electronics Engineer CSIRO E&M - Mining Geoscience Group 1 Technology Court - Pullenvale - 4069 p: (07) 3327 4142 * f: (07) 3327 4455 * e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." -- Native American Proverb > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, 25 April 2007 6:16 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [PEDA] Open source equivalent to Protel > > > Yea, seems the issue you have is that the evolutionary curve > DOS/Windows > based EDA tools underwent over the last 15 or so years is a > cumulative effort of a > large body of work with thousands of users and developers > doing it day-in day > out. > > Due to the complexities involved (as with almost any CAD > program) it's not > quite as easy as knocking off an office suite. > > Couple that with the competitive nature of the EDA market, as > well as the > possibility of being able to eventually market a tool that > these corporations > such as Altium look to compete with big $$$ UNIX-based tools > and it becomes big > business. Look at Altium, right or wrong, it's now a $10,000 > USD package. > > Add that the final product is costly, as are the mistakes in > fab/assy if the > tools screws up. This might be another reason why most are > reluctant to > switch. > > With that in mind, it's no wonder that the GNU stuff is a bit > behind. Shame > too, cause I'd love to see it a good Linux open source EDA > system myself. But > just looking at the recent gEDA PCb project bugtrack and they > got a way to > go... > > > > In a message dated 4/24/2007 3:08:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > > Unless they've done something with it recently, it's > limited to an 8 > > layer > > PCB. > > > > If you're looking for a free open source professional package to run > > under Linux - it doesn't exist. > > > > > ************************************** > See what's free at http://www.aol.com. > > ____________________________________________________________ > You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum > > To Post messages: > mailto:[email protected] > > Unsubscribe and Other Options: > http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com > > Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): > http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > ____________________________________________________________ You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum To Post messages: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe and Other Options: http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
