Release notes for the gEDA/gaf 20041228 snapshot

libgeda
• Shared library version number now at 22.
• Added a new attribute: symversion= and associated mechanism to libgeda.
  • The symversion= mechanism allows symbols to be versioned with a major and minor number. An example of this attribute is symversion=1.0
  • This symversion= attribute is typically found in symbol files at first, but it will be promoted if it is found when the symbol is read in from disk.
  • The symversion= attribute is an auto-prompted attribute, which if present in a symbol will always be promoted to the schematic.
  • If the major number of the symversion= attributes (the one in the symbol and the one in the schematic) does not match, then a serious warning message is issued.
  • When a user changes a symbol file in a major or incompatible way (translation, addition/removal of pins/attributes etc...), the major number of the symversion= attribute value should be incremented by one.
  • For minor changes, primarily cosmetic changes, only the minor number of the symversion= attribute value should incremented by one.
  • If the minor number of the symversision= attributes (the one in the symbol and the one in the schematic) does not match, then a minor warning message is issued.
  • The default value is 0.0 even if no symversion= attribute is present.
• Fixed the randomly colored midpoint postscript bug reported by Gabriel Paubert. Also removed some redundant code related to postscript printing.
• Moved a whole bunch of rc routines from gschem/gnetlist/gsymcheck into libgeda. This makes using the common rc code much easier.
• Added the --with-rcdir ./configure flag to libgeda. This was required because of the above rc code refactor. You must ./configure libgeda with this flag if you intend to move the rc files to a different directory. Be sure to put this flag on all programs (gschem/gnetlist/gsymcheck/gattrib etc...) if you want to move the rc files.
• Part of the above rc code refactor was to add an additional rc file: gafrc. The gafrc file is read in last after all other rc files are read in. Only common rc keywords can be put inside the gafrc file, including:
  • component-library
  • component-library-search
  • source-library
  • source-library-search
  • world-size
  • reset-component-library
  • reset-source-library
  • default-series-name
  • untitled-name
  • scheme-directory
  • bitmap-directory
  • font-directory
  • bus-ripper-symname
  Now you do not have to create a gschemrc, gnetlistrc, gattribrc, gschlasrc etc... if you are just adding custom component libraries. Just create a gafrc file and put the library lines in there.
• Added a bunch of init function to libgeda_init() to make using libgeda a little easier.

gschem

• Added a dialog box which pops up when a schematic is loaded up which has components which have changed in a major or minor way (based on the new symversion= attribute). See above the libgeda section for a description of the new symversion= attribute and its usage.
• Hopefully finally fixed the broken postscript problem when the locale uses commas instead of periods. Original fix by Bill Wilson and patch by Andreas Fester.
• Fixed a gschem crash when certain components (depending on what was connected to them) were being updated. I have also started working on fixing Edit/Component Update... to be more sane (and not cause duplicated attached attributes). This work is not complete, and for now, Edit/Component/Update... will still cause duplicate attributes.
• Fixed some visual garbage/corruption in the preview window in the file selection and component place dialog boxes.
• Added a new rc keyword "grid-dot-size" which lets you control the size of the grid dots. Handy if the dots are too small to see.
• Applied the scroll wheel pan patch by Sascha Silbe. The scroll wheel pans the display vertically and holding down the control key and moving the wheel the will scroll the display horizontally.
• Added a modal "Are you sure?" dialog box to page revert. This should prevent accidental page reverts (cause work losses). This dialog box is only implemented for gtk+ 2.x
• Added an Italian translation by Petrecca Michele.
• Added the comment and symversion attribute to the attribute pulldown list in the Add/Attribute dialog box.
• Updated gschem with the newly refactored rc code.

gnetlist

• Stuart implemented a whole slew of improvements to the spice-sdb backend.
• Stuart added several functions to passing the command line to scheme backends.
• Removed gschem2pcb as an installed program. gsch2pcb is the preferred tool for going from schematic to PCB.
• Applied a bugfix patch to the cascade backend by Dan McMahill.
• Integrated the initial version of a SystemC backend by Jaume Masip.
• Integrated a new scheme backend for Eagle PCB. The backend was written by Braddock Gaskill.
• Updated gnetlist with the newly refactored rc code.

gattrib

• Integrated Stuart Brorson's attribute editor: gattrib into gEDA/gaf. This is the first gEDA/gaf release that includes gattrib.
• Here's a description of gattrib:
  Gattrib is gEDA's attribute editor. It reads a set of gschem .sch files (schematic files), and creates a spreadsheet showing all components in rows, with the associated component attributes listed in the columns. It allows the user to add, modify, or delete component attributes outside of gschem, and then save the .sch files back out. When it is completed, it will allow the user to edit attributes attached to components, nets, and pins. (Currently, only component attribute editing is implemented; pin attributes are displayed only, and net attributes are TBD.)

gsymcheck

• Integrated a patch by Jim Duchek which adds several more useful tests to gsymcheck.
• Updated gsymcheck with the newly refactored rc code.

symbols

• Redrew the following symbols and set the symversion= attribute to 1.0:
  4000/4002-1.sym 4000/40107-1.sym 4000/4011-1.sym 4000/4012-1.sym 4000/4023-1.sym 4000/4025-1.sym 4000/4030-1.sym 4000/4068-1.sym 4000/4070-1.sym 4000/4072-1.sym 4000/4073-1.sym 4000/4075-1.sym 4000/4078-1.sym 4000/4081-1.sym 4000/4082-1.sym 4000/4085-1.sym:
  If you have any of these symbols in any existing schematics, you should get a warning that major changes have occurred when you run gschem or gnetlist.
• Added over ~100 user contributed symbols to the various component libraries. Created 5 new component libraries: minicircuits st apex allegro irf
• Moved the local component library to the beginning of the search order.
• Updated Peter Kaiser's asic library with the latest set of symbol. Added Peter's asic pad symbols into the new asicpads library. Commented in the asic library now that the symbol names are unique.
• Werner Hoch has fixed a whole slew of symbols in various component libraries (74, 4000, and memory). Thanks Werner!

geda (gManager)

• Piotr Miarecki added graphman, a new tool for managing graphs.
• Piotr update gManager to build with gtk+ 2.2.x
• Integrated a French and Italian translation. Not sure if the translations are work yet.

utils

• Added symbol cleanup (gsymfix.pl) script by Mike Skerritt.
• Updated gschlas with the newly refactored rc code.

docs

• attributes and symbols documents: Added information and details on the symversion= attribute
• toplevel doc page: Added links to SystemC and Eagle backend READMEs.

examples

• No significant changes.

For more a detailed changes, please look in the appropriate ChangeLogs in the source tarballs.

Bugs/Errata/Known Issues/Last Minute Issues

• This will be the last release of gEDA/gaf that will officially support glib/gtk+ 1.2.x. Future code will probably still build with this version of gtk+, but new features will not be backported.
• Patrick Bernaud discovered a function name clash between g_key_file_new() and GLib 2.6 in gschem. This means that gschem will not build when using GLib/GTK+ 2.6.x. This will be fixed shortly in CVS. Thanks for finding this Patrick.
• I integrated a whole slew of new symbols into the symbol library. Users are urged to check the schematics/symbols to make sure the new symbols do not break existing designs.
• I'm still behind in applying various patches, though I did make some progress with this release. Thank you for your continued patience.
• There are now quite a few bugs file against gEDA/gaf now in Jitterbug. If anybody wants to tackle some of them... any help would be greatly appreciated.
• As usual, send all bug reports and suggestions to the geda-dev / geda-user lists or directly to me. Thanks.

Download

• http://www.geda.seul.org/download.html (USA)
• http://ftp.sunet.se/geda/download.html (Europe)

Source Tarballs

md5sum	Name	Size
14fc5156084bf8ddc6e381b8cb793d9c	Makefile	32 KB
0e5d6d7dc950a5f7e4247be46b8c609c	geda-20041228.tar.gz	388 KB
0f6d1bb7b94812ea0d1a81aff11e080a	geda-docs-20041228.tar.gz	2744 KB
efe27da23f5fb6a836b4bcc01f16b5c6	geda-examples-20041228.tar.gz	244 KB
12e28d5d70d8da10fb27f2e966e5a906	geda-gattrib-20041228.tar.gz	308 KB
0c87828b96480120c09bfb5bfd6df9e9	geda-gnetlist-20041228.tar.gz	308 KB
f63d6fc5b1c24bf28122b5d0eeb3e1dd	geda-gschem-20041228.tar.gz	1436 KB
2776af00f395be4dd5c81f0dba2fbdab	geda-gsymcheck-20041228.tar.gz	132 KB
906f3486c1824cfea96f66cd6eedecca	geda-symbols-20041228.tar.gz	640 KB
0c416f20a56bf300fb0bfc5b3ed3ac4b	geda-utils-20041228.tar.gz	244 KB
375fbebdeb82079c970eab4b3ae41e42	libgeda-20041228.tar.gz	976 KB

Total Size: 7800 KB

Required Libraries/Programs

Most can be found at: http://www.geda.seul.org/dist

Required libraries:

• guile 1.4.1 or 1.6.3
• Either gtk+ 1.2.x or 2.2.x
  

  For gtk+ 1.2.x:
  

  • glib ≥ 1.2.10
  • gtk+ ≥ 1.2.10

  -OR-

  For gtk+ 2.2.x:
  

  • FreeType2 ≥ 2.1.9
  • glib ≥ 2.4.8
  • atk ≥ 1.8.0
  • pango ≥ 1.4.1
  • gtk+ ≥ 2.4.14
  • Fontconfig ≥ 2.2.3

Required programs:

• pkg-config ≥ 0.15.0
  NOTE: You MUST install pkg-config regardless of gtk+ version.

Optional libraries:

• LibStroke ≥ 0.5.1
• libgdgeda > 2.0.15
  NOTE: You MUST install 2.0.15, 2.0.9 or earlier versions will not work.
• zlib ≥ 1.1.x
• libpng ≥ 1.2.x

Binaries

None at this time.

Building, Installing, Running

There are several ways of building gEDA/gaf:

1. Download *all* the above files and the required libraries.
2. Build and install the required and optional libraries.
3. Untar all of the geda tar files in the same directory.
4. Set the prefix= variable in the Makefile
5. Run: make and set the specified variables (PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, and PKG_CONFIG_PATH)
6. Run: make install
   This should complete with NO errors.
7. Run: gschem and select Help/Manual... for all available documentation.

   Before you run gschem, gnetlist, gattrib, or gsymcheck you will need to set those three environment variables, or add them to a shell startup file (.bashrc, or .bash_profile or .profile)

-OR-

1. Download all the above files and the required libraries.
2. Set the specified variables (PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, and PKG_CONFIG_PATH) correctly to the place where you are installing everything.
3. Build and install the required and optional libraries.
4. Untar all of the geda tar files in the same directory.
5. Go into each directory and run:
   ./configure [ with --prefix=$HOME/geda if you wish ]
   make install

   You must build and install the packages in the following order:

   1. libgeda
   2. symbols
   3. gschem
   4. gnetlist
   5. gsymcheck
   6. gattrib
   7. geda
   8. utils
   9. docs
   10. examples