- Fri Sep 12, 2014 5:38 pm
#505
obvy wrote:symbol/footprint organization is very sane - there're cases of same chip packed in different packages, making a symbol tied to a package is proprietary short-sightedness which is ok for a software which tries to put limits on users, but would be ridiculous for open-source software - even if it was done like that, someone would soon submit patch to untie unrelated entities to allow their free recombination and free ideas flow.
Having an additional mandatory step for some unusual case is stupid in the first place.
The best symbol/footprint/3D model/Spice model organization is in Altium
obvy wrote:Cannot say much about back annotation - there's something in kicad for it, I didn't have to use it for typical hobby projects, it's not inconvenient to switch to schematics and add a resistor or connector there, and see it pop up in layout.
It is just one example: there are so many missing features in there that I cannot use it even for my hobby stuff. But maybe I am biased because I am used to Protel99, Altium, Orcad, PCAD, etc.
obvy wrote:Anyway, it's all excuses, that just show which line of thought vendors use when stick to closed proprietary stuff - they're just too lazy and inert to try something else, even if there're good reasons too. And that's well mirrored by community, who wants be given open stuff, but doesn't really want to nudge to eat own dogfood and try and learn open stuff consistently.
It is not a vendor or community problem: it is a natural human behavior to stick to what everybody says is good for you and act as sheeps. It is just so comfortable not to have to think
obvy wrote:Hacking on such new cute module as ESP8266 is a nice chance to give it a try - to find open replacement for IDA, to work on hackable compiler, or at least start hacking on GCC whatever it is currently (not very hackable), try Kicad for schematics/layout, etc. YMMV.
GCC is far from the right tool when it comes to MCUs: on Cortex ARM for example, not being able to remove unused data or functions in an object file without putting each one into its own individual section is insane and a major cause of bloat. I am not talking about rocket science compiler optimization here: just good sense
Ok, back to the original subject, feel free to convert it to KiCad if you want, but I don't have time nor interest to do it myself, I am just to busy right now.