gEDA-dev: Diode symbols in GSchem and PCB

[Stuart Brorson]

> Comments?

Not that I want to be curlish, but it's too complicated.  Complexity =
potential configuration problem = support nightmare.

I fail to understand what is wrong with our current, simple
implementation.  Yes, there are issues with some pin numbers in the
symbol lib, but it is incumbent upon all users to verify that the
pin numbering of the symbol matches that of the actual part!  The user
*must* read the datasheet.  The user is supposed to be an engineer,
right?  Engineers are suppsed to be smart, right?  Just dropping a
symbol into a schematic without checking it against the datasheet is
not smart!  I don't see any reason why the user of a schematic capture
program should be prevented from gross acts of stupidity.

Reading the datasheet, checking the pin outs, and checking your design
are fundamental parts of the engineer's job.  Checking and re-checking
pin-outs is something I do every time I enter a schematic, whether
with ViewDrool (ViewDraw/DxDesigner), Orcad, gschem, or whatever.
It's part of the job, and if a user is too dumb to check and verify
everything he has done, then he should go into a different field.

FWIW, gattrib has the hooks in place to edit pinnumber attributes.
This would make the business of fixing pinouts a lot easier than it is
now.  However, finalizing this requires us to be able to promote
pinnumber attributes out of the sym file and into the schematic.  We
have discussed this off and on for a couple of years, but haven't done 
anything with it.   Enabling pin attribute promotion would also
facilitate back-anno from PCB, which is another reason to pick up this
project soon.

> This is far too much work to ever get implemented, but I think that
> it solves the problem.

You're certainly right about the first point, and probably right about
the second too.

Stuart