gEDA-user: Multiple open pages in gschem

[Stuart Brorson]

> I'm hoping to conduct a brief census of people who use multiple pages in
> gschem. I'm working on some code-changes to libgeda which may change the
> navigation model slightly, and wanted to see how it is used now.
>
> This is a feature which confuses some new users, as it can make work
> "disappear" behind a new page.
>
> I'm also unsure if the "user-model" (what the user thinks the program
> does), matches the program's behaviour:
>
> Do you use multiple windows running from the same copy of gschem?

Yes, if you mean different schematic sheets accessed via "<" and ">".

> Do you use multiple running copies of gschem?

No.

> Do you use these for related schematics?
>  (Do you tend to have multiple pages from the same design?)

Yes.  I belive strongly that you should open one instance of gschem to
edit one design.

> How much use do you make of hierarchy traversal?
>  (Schematic or symbol down, up, page next, page previous)?

Symbol up/down. Page prev/next.  But almost never schematic up/dn.

> For testing, I've got a version of gschem which just opens a pages in a
> flat list. These can be traversed using toolbar buttons, just like a
> document viewer. This significantly simplifies some code, and UI
> presentation issues for a complex nested  hierarchy.
>
> I'm also considering it might be best to launch a new window for each
> hierarchy level, reserving multiple pages in one window to tie directly
> to the case where a single level of hierarchy has multiple pages.

Naw.  Sounds confusing to me.  Which window corresponds to which
hierarchical level?

If I were to be granted my wish, a better way to traverse hierarchy is
to have a tree widget (i.e. directory/file browser) either on the left
side of the gschem screen (like in -- ugh! -- MS Windows' file system
browser), or maybe in a pop-up window.  Then if you click on a
particular sheet, it opens up in the main gschem window.

This pre-supposes that you have created the concept of "design" in
gschem.  (That is, right now gschem only has the concept of a schematic
page.  Yes, you can link schematic pages together in gschem, but the
different pages can have nothing to do with one another -- they were
just opened during the same gschem session.)   The concept of "design"
would form the top-level data structure which would tie together all
the different, associated schematic pages into a logical unit.  Then,
the tree widget would reflect the actual structure of the entire
design.

> This is probably something I'll do whilst I develop the extended
> data-structure needed to be more flexible with viewing the hierarchy.
>
> Example screenshots are at:
>
> http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~pcjc2/geda/gschem_page_navi.png
> http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~pcjc2/geda/gschem_page_navi2.png

I like the left/right arrows and the p. X of Y very much!  I'm a
little unclear on the two down arrows, but suppose they are down
symbol and down schematic, right?  If so, where's the up button?

Stuart