Re: [ng-spice-frontends] how many?


To ng-spice-frontends@ieee.ing.uniroma1.it
From "Arno W. Peters" <a.w.peters@ieee.org>
Date Sun, 19 Nov 2000 22:48:46 +0100
Cc ng-spice-devel <ng-spice-devel@ieee.ing.uniroma1.it>
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In-Reply-To <00111722530800.00661@localhost.localdomain>; from riccardo.russo@tiscalinet.it on Fri, Nov 17, 2000 at 10:47:29PM +0100
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[cross-posted to ng-spice-devel]

On Fri, Nov 17, 2000 at 10:47:29PM +0100, Riccardo Russo wrote:
> 
> I'd like to know how many people is reading this mailing list, and
> if there already are projects or ideas for the ngspice frontend.

I'd say most of the action is in ng-spice-devel.

I am playing with some idea's concerning a Spice frontend.  See below
for further discussion.

> Are we going to modify some existing program (like nutmeg) or write
> a new one from scratch (much more fun!)?

I believe the best course of action is to interface an existing
scripting language to Spice.  It gives you a solid base to build upon,
instead of reinventing the wheel (aka, another scripting language)
once more.

Unfortunately, the license to the Berkeley derived Spice may not allow
such an action... licensing incompatibilities rear their ugly head
again.  Interfacing ACS with one of the many GPL scripting languages
is much easier license-wise.

What kinds of tasks could a frontend do?
* optimize a circuit for some criterium
* allow interactive exploration of circuit parameters
* interactively compare design alternatives
* allow implementation of a robust test environment
* allow remote simulation (Spice server)
* ...

Requirements for an ng-spice-rework/ACS frontend:

* programmable: variables, control loops, etc
* interactive
* command history
* simulation available as function calls
* simulation results in variables
* plotting facilities
* interfaces with libraries (networking, graphic toolkits, etc.)
* ...


Let me know what you think,
-- 
Arno

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