gEDA-dev: Fwd: google soc

[al davis]

On Saturday 19 May 2007, Dario Talili wrote:
> Good day!  I was quite late already in applying for Google
> SOC.  I'd just like to join in the development still even if
> I don't get paid.  Ales Hvezda told me to just ask people
> here on when I can start developing & which people I can join
> to for the project called "Usability improvements for
> ngspice/Gnucap".  Thanks a lot!

The biggest need related to that is in how the tools work 
together.

The biggest hole is in the file format translation.  Only a 
small subset of a schematic is properly translated to something 
simulatable. 

So .. here's a project suggestion:

Develop "language plugins" for gnucap to read and write gschem 
and PCB formats directly.

Eventually, it can become part of a general purpose translation 
facility.  Unless someone else does it first, after the format 
is stable, will make a driver so the plugins can be used as 
separate translators.




There is someone working on improvements to gtkwave, hopefully 
including some analog extensions.  So far, it's just digital.  
Even so, I do not expect any more than viewing simple 
waveforms.

There is a team working on a graphic simulation front/back-end 
in python.  They are just getting started and sometimes post on 
the gnucap-devel list.  It is too soon to tell how this will 
develop.  There is a need for a program that processes, 
manipulates, and displays simulation data.  This could develop 
to that.

There have been many starts to do a simulation GUI, but none 
have been successful, probably because the basic concept 
doesn't make sense.  So far, all of them that I have seen seem 
to be targeted at permanent beginners.