[sci.electronics] A LONG schematics proposal and VOTE!

phd@SPEECH1.CS.CMU.EDU (Paul Dietz) (03/11/88)

I'm very pleased with the response to my post concerning the need
for a way to post schematics. Now that we all agree on the need, it's
time to get down to the nitty-gritty stuff.

I have received an enormous amount of mail from people susgesting
various formats. MacPaint still seems to be the most popular, with
PostScript a close second. Other popular susgestions included
HPGL, EDIF, and SPICE type files. While this sort of debate is
healthy and will ultimately lead to the best possible system, I
fear that it will be a LONG time coming. Not to mention the distinct
possiblity that this discussion could easily occupy a good 50% of
the bandwidth of sci.electronics for the next 2 years.

I believe we need to form a working group of all interested parties
with the purpose of devising and implementing a superb schematics
protocol. Is there anyone out there who would be willing to organize
this? (Not me! I've got a thesis to finish...) Basically, it would
involve maintaining a mailing list, and some other managerial type
tasks. Since I don't expect a deluge of people to offer their
services, feel free to post to the world if you are willing to
provide this important community service.

To get this all up and running will probably require a great
deal of code to be written. Does anybody know of a funding
source that might be interested in this project? Then we could
afford to hire some graduate students (i.e. slave laborers) to
do much of the porting to the various machines.

Finally, it is clear that this is going to be a lengthy process.
Thus, I still think we should adopt binhexed MacPaint format
files as an interim solution. While far from perfect, they do
seem to be the most widely viewable/editable at this time.
(If it makes any difference, I'm considering kludging some old
code together into a package for the Mac that allows graphic
schematic entry, and generates both a MacPaint format file
AND a human readable net-list. But this won't be for awhile...)

So, in the democratic tradition of the net, let's put it to a vote!

Pros for MacPaint:

	Wide availability of translators that allow viewing on most
	popular systems.

	Wide availability of editing tools (at least if you have
	a Mac).

	Generality of expression. Since these are just bitmaps, you
	can draw just about anything you like.

Cons for MacPaint:

	Not everyone will have access to the hardware, or even the
	assorted translators for viewing these files.

	No easy way to get a net list, other than by tracing out
	the schematic by hand.

	MacPaint files are not a terribly efficient way of storing
	schematics.

Please keep in mind that this is an interim solution ONLY.

In order to vote, please send mail to me at the ARPANET address:

phd@carina.ece.cmu.edu

Note that this is not the same as the reply address your mailer
will automatically generate for this posting. (My normal mail
reading account is already overburdened...)

In the subject line of your reply put either yes or no. Nothing
else! The votes will be tallyed by machine. If you wish to make
a comment in the body of your message, feel free. I will summarize
these to the net.

Again, thanks to everyone for all their thoughtful comments! Hopefully
we can get a real system in place by the end of the year!

Paul H. Dietz                                        ____          ____
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering        / oo \        <_<\\\
Carnegie Mellon University                        /|  \/  |\        \\ \\
--------------------------------------------     | | (  ) | |       | ||\\
"If God had meant for penguins to fly,             -->--<--        / / |\\\  /
he would have given them wings."            _________^__^_________/ / / \\\\-