gEDA-dev: [PATCH] GAF: Solve the "transistor problem"

[DJ Delorie]

> Eh? I think it's the opposite. A light symbol library is easy,

A *usable* light symbol library is hard from the tool's point of view,
because it has no way to specialize each symbol to its actual package.
You end up with one "light" symbol per pinout, which isn't really a
light symbol at all.

> and individual heavy symbols aren't hard.

Until the first time you use the wrong one by accident in a project,
and the board doesn't work.  Or until the first time you change
packages and have to swap out a symbol with a different
pinout/shape/footprint/whatever.

> What's hard is creating the billions of symbols that a
> *comprehensive* heavy symbol library would need.

Agreed.  My idea is to have the "heavy" part in a database, and merge
the light symbol with the heavy attributes to produce the info you
need.  Pinout mappings and slotting can come from the database.