gEDA-dev: Gschem and Cairo graphics library

[John Doty]

On Aug 2, 2006, at 4:38 AM, Levente Kovacs wrote:

> If a company want to use gEDA, they sure have an administrator. (S) 
> he'll figure out dependecies, will build debs, rpms, or whatever  
> package, and will distribute them on a local server. So, users can  
> PAINLESSLY install them. Easy, painless, and no need to have extra  
> gigabytes. This is how it is done at CERN. This is I know.

That works when the decision to make gEDA made is made at the top of  
a large organization. I've never seen this happen. Noqsi Aerospace is  
mostly me: I am the IT admin along with nearly everything else. But I  
work with people at other organizations, some large, some very small.  
In a large organization, IT isn't going to be interested in gEDA if  
only one person is using it: that person is on their own. A small  
organization like mine probably has no separate IT admin.

>
> The statically linked thing is a "windoze way"... DON'T think just  
> pay! :-) Even, if it is 0.3 cents to have all the libs installed  
> with gEDA

It's the real world way. If you buy commercial software for Solaris,  
MacOSX, or even Linux, it'll generally come with everything that it  
might need beyond what's in a standard minimal installation.  
Hobbyists and IT folks may find the benefits of a tangled web of  
interdependencies worthwhile, but for an engineer with a deadline the  
brittleness and wasted time are just a deterrent.

A good recent example of the brittleness of the dependency web is the  
infamous slice bug in gschem.

>
> However, I think it is a good idea to put together a demo CD. I  
> think Igor2's idea is good to do that! Even, a live distribution  
> with gEDA installed. eg. Gnoppix, or Knoppix

A gEDA demo is a worthy thing, but it doesn't solve my problem: I  
need to be able to tell collaborators what to install to actually  
*use* gEDA. I know what works on *my* system configurations, but not  
on others.  Remember that engineers care more about stable and  
predictable behavior that about being sure to have the latest cool  
feature.

If you're going to rely on distro packages, you're at the mercy of  
the packagers. I've sometimes had to resort to the tarballs: not a  
huge deal if you're used to that drill, but daunting to some.

John Doty              Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd.
jpd at wispertel.net