Re: [Ngspice-devel] Ngspice rework-15 is out!

[<sd...@cl...>]

Hi Paolo --

First off, I fixed my build problem.  I am not satisfied with the fix,
however.   All I did was remove the offending part of
src/misc/stringutils.h in this way:

-----------------  Code snippet  --------------
#if 0
#if !defined(HAVE_INDEX) && !defined(HAVE_STRCHR)

char * index(register char *s, register char c);
char * rindex(register char *s, register char c );

#endif   /* !defined(HAVE_INDEX) && !defined(HAVE_STRCHR) */
#endif
-----------------------------------------------

This is a hack, but ngspice now builds, and it seems to run fine.  The
problem acts more like a gcc bug than a code bug.  (I am running the
infamous gcc-2.96 from RedHat.)  However, I don't want to blame the
compiler until I am certain that I understand the whole problem -- and
I don't.  Anyway, I would be interested in hearing if other people are
able to build successfully with the raw release, or if they have to
cook it a little bit too.   

BTW:  I tried many other fixes, but without any luck.  I will continue
looking at this problem.

> > Paolo, any other options I should set?
> 
> Well, this is a good question, I generally compile spice with the
> following options:
> 
>  --enable-capzerobypass  --enable-intnoise 
> 
> May be you can try the predictor code adding
> 
>  --enable-predictor
> 
> 
> This is a question you should ask to people with more experience than
> mine. Steve Hamm once wrote a good list describing each option. Steve,
> can you please repost it, I cannot find it anymore.

I'd like to see it too.  I did read the configure.in code,  but it
would be interesting to see what some of the options really mean.

> > OK, so much for the good news.  Now the bad news:  Build barfed on my
> > machine while compiling src/xspice/ipc.  It seems that there is a
> > conflict with the fcn "index", which is defined twice, once in
> > $(ng-spice)/src/misc/stringutil.h and once in /usr/include/string.h.
> > Here's the spew from make when it fails:
> 
> ...
> 
> > I will manually #define HAVE_INDEX and try again.  Meanwhile, any
> > ideas why it wasn't found by ./configure?  If you want, I can send you
> > my config.log.
> 
> This is very strange... mhhh I have compiled the distribution before 
> uploading it Will check immediatly and may be we will have a rework 16
> in a few hours. Thanks for the report. Yes, send me the config.log

Naw, rework-16 isn't necessary unless you get some other build failure
reports.  Then we can try to really fix the problem.  (Right now I
have just avoided the problem, not fixed the root cause.)  In the
future, I would be happy to serve as an alpha-tester before you
make another release.  Just e-mail me.  (Sometimes you have to bug me
a few times to get me to do something, though.  I am kinda busy
often, but I will respond to repeated requests for help!  :-)  )
Also, you may get other people on this list to volunteer for alpha
testing.  

> And now... what about writing documentation ? I would like to to use LyX
> to produce LaTex files and then ps/pdf/.... whatever else.

Good idea.  I am happy to augment my "SPICE on Linux Resources"
webpage & HOWTO to say more about ngspice.  I have it already in mind
to implement the following changes:

*  Update HOWTO to reflect Ales's incorporation of multi-line attribs
using GTK-2.2.  This makes it easier to incorporate multi-line .model
attributes into a component.

*  Maybe say something about Bill Cox's gnetman.  To do this, I must
first understand it better . . . . .

*  Write something about the dependent sources (currently undone).  

*  Overall, more detail and more clarity.

*  Say more about ngspice, now that you've updated it!

*  Incorporate some info about transmission line modeling.  (Indeed,
today I thought about doing a "Signal Integrity Analysis using
gEDA/ngspice" HOWTO.  This will take some time, however . . . .)

*  Also, I think it would be good to say something about the different
models available in ngspice.

However, it will take me some time (i.e. months) to get around to
this.  Therefore, if you want to take my current HOWTO & LaTeX it,
please feel free to do so.  Also, please let me know what other ideas
or requests for documentation you might have.   I won't promise to do
them soon, but I figure I will eventually get to them.

Thanks again for ngspice-rework-15!

Stuart