gEDA-dev: [Re: is all EDA as bad as gEDA/pcb?]

[Dan McMahill]

DJ Delorie wrote:
>> It very much feels like the active PCB developers can never be
>> bothered to test whether their changes have broken the GTK HID --
>> presumably because they don't care.
> 
> To be realistic, we have three active pcb maintainers.  I *don't* care
> about the GTK hid, other than to keep HID interface changes from
> breaking it.  I care a lot about the Lesstif HID, because I use it all
> the time.  Ben is just starting out with PCB development and seems to
> be gravitating towards the complex core functions like the clipper.
> Dan is the only one who does anything with the GTK hid, and he's busy
> and can't put much time into it.  Occasionally Harry or Peter Clifton
> commit a patch.
> 
> That's it.  Three active developers.
> 
> If you want the GTK hid to be as well maintained as the Lesstif HID,
> you're going to have to find someone that cares about it as much as I
> care about the Lesstif HID, and has the time and inclination to work
> on it.

I made some fairly far reaching changes when I put in the user 
configurable menus in the gtk version.  I asked for volunteers to help 
in testing becuase the reality is I'm not actually using any of the 
tools here much at the moment (way too busy with other things).  I got 
two testers and worked through the issues from them.  It would have 
really helped to have more.  So what happens is a lot of code never gets 
really put through the works and really pushed hard until it is released 
as a snapshot.

That said, I'd like to think that perhaps there will be a period of 
stability.  Ben and DJ have fixed a bunch of bugs lately and there is at 
least one which I know of that I really need to fix.

Really we could use more help though.  If anyone cares to kidnap DJ and 
make several clones that would be a good start!

-Dan