On 10 September 2014 22:25, Javier Serrano <javier.serrano.par...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Assuming I have correctly understood what you mean (English is not my > native language) I'd have to disagree with it. All the opinions I have read > here seem to me as coming from people who are genuinely convinced of what > they are saying. Everybody here wants to make KiCad better. I support the > notion that KiCad can and should improve in the usability/friendliness/etc > department because I know your case as a first time user is far from > unique, and I think that's not good for KiCad and first user experiences > could be better without making the experience worse for everybody else. > Now, discussing about these things in a mailing list this size is tricky > because all of us may have strong opinions about something and there is > lots of room for misunderstanding. So respect is key to begin with! > You're absolutely right. These are prime bike-shedding topics that was could probably discuss forever without actually improving anything. So in the interests of doing something.... I'm planning to do the following: End goal: Improve the usability and learnability/discoverability of Kicad without annoying experienced users. Method: 1. File bugs for the issues I found in the video (assuming they aren't already in the bug tracker). 2. Create a wiki page linking to important bugs, along with proposed solutions and difficulty (example below). Kind of like the CERN work packages page. 3. Fix the bugs! (when I say bugs I mean bugs and needed features) Examples: Bug: When kicad is run for the first time it complains about a missing project file. Solution: Either include the missing file, or don't complain if the missing file is "". See src/foo/bar/baz.cpp:55 Difficulty: Easy Bug: Can't disable mouse warp on zoom everywhere. Solution: Add it to the preferences where it isn't available, or make those parts of kicad respect the preference that is set elsewhere. Difficulty: Easy Bug: Mouse warping setting (and presumably others) aren't global - you have to set them in about 5 different places. Solution: Depends on what CERN do with the integration of kicad programs. Difficulty: Hard Bug: New users (both to Kicad, and PCB design in general) are unsure what to do after running Kicad for the first time. Solution 1: A dialog with links to tutorials on first startup. Solution 2: Context-sensitive "signpost" tips. etc. Difficulty: Medium For controversial bugs/solutions like the last one I'll list several potential options and then they can be discussed. Any major objections? As Javier said, please don't be mean - I'm volunteering my bug fixing help and was nearly ready to abandon that idea until I received a nice supportive off-list email (thanks!). Cheers, Tim
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