On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 09:06:39AM -0400, Wayne Stambaugh wrote: > comments about indices is correct. Using an ordinal number does not > guarantee layer compatibility when we finally get around to adding > more layers. They are also not readable. What is a layer 0, 1, 2, > 3...N? You would always have to refer back to the layer table to > know which layer the ordinal number is mapped to if they were used > define layers in the rest of the file. The only good thing about > ordinal numbers in this case is they cannot be translated.
OK, I got it. It's a 'transitional phase', and the layer number are more or less scheduled to disappear (or be deprecated), at least from the external files. I am not too happy with numbered layer but they could do *inside* of pcbnew. In the file format I agree they are only a nuisance. > That being said, I do believe that providing users a way to define > their own layer names that can be translated is a good thing. It's > just that they cannot be used in the file layer definitions or any > of the layer manipulation code. They can only be mapped to the > standard layer names and only be used for UI purposes. I'm guessing > that adding a 4th entry to the layer definition in the file would do > the trick. However, I am in agreement with Dick that we should get > the footprint library table implemented so that both the board and > footprint file formats are stable then consider how we want to add > user defined layer names. I working on it as fast as I can given my > time constraints. So it would be like my second scenario. Perfectly fine with that, I have no hurry. Internal names are the layer key and user names are for user convenience, everybody wins. In the end LAYER_NUM could be even be some kind of interned string... The thing I was worried about was the complete inflexibility of Dick about layer naming. If it meant the 'internal and file format ones' I agree with him. In this case I think that keeping the internal names even for the copper layers (in the file) would be the better thing to do (since there is anyway a 'user name' field available) Thanks for the explanation (and a little bit of roadmap). -- Lorenzo Marcantonio Logos Srl _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers Post to : kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp