gEDA

gEDA
	Schematic capture using gschem
Original author(s)	Ales Hvezda et al.
Stable release	1.4.1 / 29 September 2008
Repository	git.geda-project.org/geda-gaf.git ;
Operating system	Unix-like
Type	Electronic design automation
License	GNU General Public License
Website	http://www.gpleda.org/

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The term gEDA refers to two things:

A set of software applications (CAD tools) used for electronic design released under the GPL. As such, gEDA is an ECAD (electronic CAD) or EDA (electronic design automation) application suite. gEDA is mostly oriented towards printed circuit board design (as opposed to integrated circuit design). The gEDA applications are often referred to collectively as "the gEDA Suite".
The collaborative of free software/open-source developers who work to develop and maintain the gEDA toolkit. The developers communicate via gEDA mailing lists, and participate in the yearly "Google Summer of Code" event as a single project. This collaborative is often referred to as "the gEDA Project".

The word "gEDA" is a conjunction of "GPL" and "EDA". The names of some of the individual tools in the gEDA Suite are prefixed with the letter "g" to emphasize that they are released under the GNU General Public License, and to remind users that they are members of the gEDA Suite.

History

The gEDA project was started by Ales Hvezda in an effort to remedy the lack of free software EDA tools for Linux/UNIX.^[1] The first software was released on 1 April 1998, and included a schematic capture program and a netlister.^[2] At that time, the gEDA Project website and mailing lists were also set up.

Originally, the project planned to also write a PCB layout program. However, an existing open-source layout program, "PCB", was soon discovered by the project. Thereafter, the ability to target netlists to PCB was quickly built into the gEDA Project's netlister, and plans to write a new layout program from scratch were scrapped. Meanwhile, developers working on PCB became affiliates of the gEDA Project.

Meanwhile, other open-source EDA programs were created at about the same time. The authors of those programs found kindred spirits via the gEDA website and mailing lists, and the collaborative gEDA Project was born.

At present, the gEDA Project remains a federation of software tools developed by different (but sometimes overlapping) programmers. By associating with gEDA, free software authors do not give up any control over their tools, but they gain a community which cares about quality and free (as in freedom) EDA tools. It is not shared code, or a common user interface which distinguishes the gEDA suite. Rather, the thread which holds the project together is the shared vision of creating a powerful, community-based, open-source EDA toolkit running on Linux.

Detailed Description

Loosely speaking, the term "gEDA Suite" refers to all free software projects and applications that have voluntarily associated themselves with the gEDA Project via the geda-dev/geda-user mailing lists. These include:

gEDA/gaf - gschem and friends (the original project)
PCB - PCB layout program
Gerbv - Gerber file viewer
ngspice - a port of Berkeley SPICE
GnuCap - A modern electronic circuit simulation program
gspiceui - A GUI front end for ngspice/GnuCap
gwave - An analog waveform viewer
Icarus Verilog - A Verilog simulator
GTKWave - A digital waveform viewer
wcalc - Transmission line and electromagnetic structure analysis

Within the gEDA Suite, gEDA/gaf ("gaf" stands for "gschem and friends") is the smaller subset of tools grouped together under the gEDA name and maintained directly by the gEDA project's founders. GEDA/gaf includes:

gschem - A schematic capture program
gnetlist - A netlist generation program
gsymcheck - A syntax checker for schematic symbols
gattrib - A spreadsheet program for editing symbol attributes on a schematic.
libgeda - Libraries for gschem, gnetlist, and gsymcheck
gsch2pcb - Forward annotation from schematic to layout using pcb
Assorted utility programs

Platforms

Linux

Because one of the gEDA Project's longstanding goals is to provide a suite of EDA applications for Linux, all applications in the gEDA Suite compile and run on Linux. Besides building the programs from source, binary executables for all programs in the gEDA Suite are available from popular package archives; the programs may be installed on many common Linux distributions using package management tools such as apt-get and yum.

Unix

All gEDA applications will also compile and run on other free Unix-like operating systems, such as FreeBSD and NetBSD. Some of these distributions also support installation of pre-packaged binaries using package management utilities.

Mac OS X

Most gEDA applications also install and run successfully on Mac OS X, typically using the "fink" package manager. Since few commercial EDA tools run on the Mac, this feature has made gEDA a popular electronic design package amongst Mac users.

Microsoft Windows

Because the programs in the gEDA Suite target POSIX compliant operating systems, Microsoft Windows support is currently not a project goal. Nonetheless, some programs in the gEDA Suite have built-in hooks for Windows support, and those programs will build and run under Windows. However, binary executables for most of the gEDA Suite are not distributed by the gEDA Project.

Community

An important feature of the gEDA Project is the strong user community it has created.^[3] The gEDA mailing lists have several hundred subscribers, and a large percentage of those subscribers are deeply knowledgeable electronics experts. Accordingly, the gEDA mailing lists have become a focal point not only for information related to the gEDA applications, but also for exchange of general electronic design information.

As a consequence of the project's openness, schematic symbols, footprints, and utility scripts are freely created and shared amongst the members of the gEDA community at a spin-off website, www.gedasymbols.org.

References

^ Goering, Richard (12/13/2004). "Do-it-yourselfer's EDA project wins open-source fans". EE Times. Retrieved 2008-11-25. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
^ Goering, Richard (11/25/1998). "Open-source movements get behind GNU EDA tools". EE Times. Retrieved 2008-11-30. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
^ Anderson, Tom (2008). "Creating Open Source Electronic Hardware with Open Source Software". O'Reilly OSCON Open Source Convention. Retrieved 2008-11-25. {{cite conference}}: Unknown parameter |booktitle= ignored (|book-title= suggested) (help)

External links

gEDA Project Homepage
Circuit Design on Your Linux Box Using gEDA — Overview article in the Linux Journal
gsch2pcb tutorial — How to go from schematic to pcb layout
Using gEDA — Another tutorial describing how to use the gEDA Toolset.

[1] Goering, Richard (12/13/2004). "Do-it-yourselfer's EDA project wins open-source fans". EE Times. Retrieved 2008-11-25. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

[2] Goering, Richard (11/25/1998). "Open-source movements get behind GNU EDA tools". EE Times. Retrieved 2008-11-30. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

[3] Anderson, Tom (2008). "Creating Open Source Electronic Hardware with Open Source Software". O'Reilly OSCON Open Source Convention. Retrieved 2008-11-25. {{cite conference}}: Unknown parameter |booktitle= ignored (|book-title= suggested) (help)

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