Re: gEDA-dev: SoC Hopeful

[Peter Clifton <pcjc2-at-NOSPAMcam_dot_ac_dot_uk>]

On Mon, 2007-03-19 at 08:24 +0530, C P Tarun wrote:
[snip]

> I suggest that from Day 1 itself, we decide to build not just these features
> into gschem or elsewhere, but also build a Perl-callable library to access
> this database, read from it, write to it, etc. With such a library
> being included
> in the core source base of geda, future tool writing will become hugely simpler.

"C" Libraries are perl-callable aren't they? I Presume there must be a
way to write a language binding for a "C" API.

> I've wished hundreds of times for a proper, "official" Perl-callable library
> to parse a layout file, a footprint file, or a schematic file, and load the data
> into an in-memory data structure. Such a library to read and write these file
> formats would dramatically reduce the activation energy hump to write
> a rich set of tools for all of us.
>
> For such a library to be useful, it would have to be maintained with the
> same degree of seriousness as the C/C++ source of gschem and pcb.
> The library should not be allowed to fall out of sync with the changing
> file formats that the primary programs handle. And if it's too difficult to
> keep two different parsers in sync, then the C code for the parser used
> in the original programs should be encased in wrappers and then made
> available as Perl-callable functions. (Perl can call suitably encased
> C code.) That way, the two parsers will never fall out of sync.

It would not fall out of sync with the changing file-formats, because
you wouldn't write yet another implementation of the parser,
data-structures etc, nor would you copy-paste code.

You would have one library which is used by all tools (probably in C as
this is what the suite mostly uses), then you would provide language
bindings so people can write the useful utilities they want.

If this means having to split code out of existing tools and into a
library, that is the way forward in terms of code reuse.

Regards,

-- 
Peter Clifton

Electrical Engineering Division,
Engineering Department,
University of Cambridge,
9, JJ Thomson Avenue,
Cambridge
CB3 0FA

Tel: +44 (0)7729 980173 - (No signal in the lab!)



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