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." _________^__^_________/ / / \\\\-