On Nov 19, 2009, at 1:33 AM, Peter TB Brett wrote: > On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:21:10 -0700, John Doty <j...@noqsi.com> wrote: > >>> I hold that a "slot" is related to a multiplicity of identical units >>> within the chip, and the slotting mechanism was _not_ intended as an >>> arbitrary way of fudging different combinations of pin-numbers into >>> the >>> netlist in various situations. >> >> Intent doesn't matter here. A clean design performs a simple, clean >> function. Intent is provided by the user. > > Fine. Then you will agree with me that the current slotting > mechanism *does > not* work as designed. This is a fact, unless you equate "as > designed" > with "as currently implemented."
No, I disagree completely. This is not a fact. Or can you read Ales' mind? It seems to me that his design methodology seeks simple, transparent *behavior* (hurray!). The design "as currently implemented" is perhaps not the best example of success here, but it's certainly simpler and more transparent than the alternatives others advocate. > > And, furthermore, if I/we fixed it to work as designed, some users > would be > up in arms -- because they have been using the mechanism in a way > contrary > to its design, and fixing it to work as designed has broken their > schematics. The mechanism remaps pins via a slotdef attribute selected via a slot attribute. Period. How that mechanism is to be used is up to the user. Using it in a way that *you* wouldn't use it isn't "contrary to its design". > > Which is what Peter C. was saying, and which point you have ignored. > > Note that this same point applies to several other aspects of > gEDA. If, > when users state that they are taking advantage of bugs, There is no bug here. Just a reasonably simple, transparent, flexible mechanism. The real problem is that if somebody wants something different, you can't say: "Here, install this script and put this line in your gafrc". > we do not point > out that they *are* bugs and encourage them not to, then we lose the > ability to fix those bugs. Down that path lies Windows^Wmadness. The madness comes from unpredictable behavior implementing some murky, incompletely defined concept. "Slotting" is exactly such a concept. Rather than descend into the murk, it is better to keep the mechanism simple. John Doty Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd. http://www.noqsi.com/ j...@noqsi.com _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user