Re: gEDA-dev: [Re: is all EDA as bad as gEDA/pcb?]

[Peter Clifton <pcjc2-at-NOSPAMcam_dot_ac_dot_uk>]

On Sat, 2007-12-08 at 22:01 -0800, Ben Jackson wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 09, 2007 at 12:58:06AM -0500, DJ Delorie wrote:
> > 
> > > I would drop autoscroll too.
> > 
> > Note that I didn't add that to the lesstif HID :-)
> 
> You know, the problem with the GTK hid is that it's prettier but
> not as well maintained as the Lesstif hid.  I tried it first before
> I found out that "nobody" uses it.  I think we either need to fix it
> up or at least warn package maintainers that it's not the preferred
> HID, no matter how gnome-y your distro is.

"Nobody", should probably be taken to include all users who never found
these lists, or have just installed from the distro packages.

Back when I started with PCB and gEDA, PCB's GTK port (pre HID) worked
mostly fine. My first gEDA hacking was patches to make it work more the
way I wanted it to. I had no idea where PCB "came" from.. I think I
emailed Harry the patches (his name is in the about box), and passed
them onto the guys at the University who were packaging the software.

I'd come across and tried PCB before it's GTK version, and the barriers
to entry were just too high. Not only did I have no idea what was what
in an EDA tool, it was in a foreign toolkit, and it had very quirky
right-click menus etc..

PCB has come on a long way since then, but yes.. the GTK HID seems to
get broken an unfortunate amount. I didn't notice this commit by commit,
as I wasn't designing boards at the time, but I did notice shortly after
I tried to package and test it.

I think there are fixes made (or waiting eyeballs) for the main issues
which make the GTK hid a pain to use, relative to what is used to be.

> Toward the fix-it-up end, one reason for my new virtual Linux install
> is to be able to build the GTK flavor and at least not *totally* ignore
> it...

That's good to hear. I think the GTK HID has more value in (perceived at
least) user familiarity and friendliness than you realise.

-- 
Peter Clifton

Electrical Engineering Division,
Engineering Department,
University of Cambridge,
9, JJ Thomson Avenue,
Cambridge
CB3 0FA

Tel: +44 (0)7729 980173 - (No signal in the lab!)



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