Re: gEDA: GTKwave status

[Tim Freedom <tim_freedom@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Anthony J Bybell <netracurse@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Fri, 3 Mar 2006, Tim Freedom wrote:
> > - GTKWave's homepage (?):
> >     http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/apt/projects/tools/gtkwave/
> >     NOTE: No progress since May 2004; is project dead or are they
> >           shopping for a new owner ?
> 
> http://home.nc.rr.com/gtkwave/ is the latest 1.3 version.  2.x has ceased
> development but 1.3 continues.  There is a lot of stuff in 1.3 that 2.x
> does not have (scroll mouse, LXT2/VZT support, VCD export, analog
> support for variable height traces, etc).

Thank you Tony for your prompt reply - I highly recommend that the gEDA
pages reflect the information noted above (and below) so that all are aware
of these changes.  The ATP page(s) should do the same...

> > - Win32 GTKWave:
> >  
> http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Campus/3216/GTKWave/gtkwave-win32.html
> >   NOTE: using version 1.3.19; last update June 2002
> 
> See the roadrunner webpage above.  Latest one up should be in the 1.3.80s.
> I don't have a current version up as a buffer exploit hijacked IE and
> wrecked my windows XP install.  Reinstalling XP is not a priority of
> mine.  Them's the breaks.  It should fairly easily recompile under MinGW.

Fair enough, I'm not a windows user - I just wanted to point out the various
tidbits of info out there regarding GTKWave and how confusing it might look
to someone looking for an opensource alternative.

> > - gEDA GTKWave:
> >   http://www.geda.seul.org/tools/gtkwave/
> >   NOTE: Current version info (2.0.0pre3) seems dated, no mention of
> >         current status and/or what is happening in this application.
> >   NOTE: The 'Official GTKWave homepage' link is not really pointing
> >         the ATP's GTKWave's page
> >   NOTE: The 1.3.x series has progressed to 1.3.85 (webpage notes 1.3.59);
> >         so are we to use the 2.0.x series or 1.3.x - which is newer and
> >         why the schism, will there be future development, whom to
> >         direct questions/comments to, etc.
> 
> The "schism" is because the people working on 2.x added async support for
> Balsa so as far as I can gather the tool does what they need for them.
> Plus everyone working on it has gotten their Ph.D's and is probably gone
> from the uni.

If 2.0.x and 1.3.x have no chance of converging, could we ask them to release
the name so as to lessen the confusion.  In other words, can we ask the ATP
project to rename their version of the code to say GTKasyncWave or something
similar...

> > GTKWave is an __extremely__ important tool for anyone doing RTL design
> > yet it is a bit cumbersome to use (2.0.0pre3 at least is) especially
> > its "Signal" search and hierarchy tree.  It would be ideal to make it
> > a bit more user friendly and intuitive akin to Signalscan, SimVision,
> > Virsim or Debussy (they all seem to follow the same intuitive segmentation
> > of hierarchy and signals which ought to be studied).  I'm sure GTK as
> > a library has something that can be tapped into to help out.
> 
> Compile and install the latest version using gtk+-2.x.  The tree search is
> much nicer now.  (It was reworked by Tristan Gingold of GHDL.)

Will do - looking forward to an improved signal interface :-)  The
screenshots (under "Search Menu") on your RR webpage still note the
old cumbersome interface btw.

> > Is there simply no interest (or need) in further clarifying GTKWave's
> > current status and future plans ?  Are there no needs to further develop
> > (or enhance) this tool ?
> 
> Development continues on a daily basis with user contributions and also
> from what I need featurewise in order to do my job at work.  As it stands,
> there is no roadmap or anything like that as development isn't done by
> committee.  I'd really like to add sourcecode annotation like Debussy does
> but it's not a priority of mine as I've gotten along fine without it so
> far for debugging fairly large SoCs.
> 
> gtkwave should be on sourceforge sometime soon as there's another project
> that sort of integrates with the viewer (OpenSKIL) and the maintainer
> would like all the source in one convenient spot.  I actually received an
> email from him today about it.

Wonderful !!  As noted the info wasn't really noted on the proper pages
and it should be.

Ales, could you please update the GTKWave page with all this info and see
what can be done about getting a clean separation between the ATP version
of GTKWave (name change ?) and the actively developed GTKWave (as noted by
Tony) ?

Hamish, you might want to package the latest releases from Tony into debian,
what is in APT now is 1.3.34.  While at it remove the 'VCD' reference from
the package description and possibly go with a simple "A signal waveform
viewer" to make it more broad as GTKWave is now supporting even more input
formats.

BTW: I saw no info/pages or references on OpenSKIL

Regards,

 .tf.


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