README file for FidoCadJ
Copyright 2007-2014
by Davide Bucci
----------------
1 - Introduction
----------------
FidoCadJ is a very easy to use editor, with a vast library of electrical
symbols and footprints (through hole and SMD). Its drawings can be exported
in several graphic formats (PDF, EPS, PGF for LaTeX, SVG, PNG, JPG). Even if
it is very simple and somewhat limited, FidoCadJ can be very useful as a basic
schematic capture and electronic design automation (EDA) software. FidoCadJ
is inspired from FidoCAD (without "J"), which was a vector graphic editor
useful for electrical schematics and printed circuit boards.
FidoCAD used a file format containing UTF-8 text, very compact and
perfect for copy and pasting from/into newsgroups and forum messages.
This determined its success among the italian Usenet community and forums,
from late '90s, as it is quite versatile for simple mechanical drawings as
well. FidoCadJ is the modern successor of FidoCAD.
No netlist concept lies behind the drawings, so there is all the graphical
flexibility that a vector drawing software can offer (but no simulation).
FidoCadJ is internationalized and its manual is available in English, French,
Italian and Chinese translations. The user interface has been translated
into English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Chinese, Dutch, Japanese,
Czech.
Here are a few useful sites about FidoCadJ:
http://tinyurl.com/yavewp2
http://sourceforge.net/projects/fidocadj/
If you own a PC running Linux or Windows (or any system supporting Java), you
may download from the SourceForge repository the file fidocadj.jar. If Java
is correctly installed on your machine, you may just double click on it to
run FidoCadJ. If you are a command line wizard, you may go to the directory
where the file fidocadj.jar has been saved and type:
java -jar fidocadj.jar
If you use Windows, you might find useful using the classical installer
contained in the FidoCadJ_Windows.exe file. If you run it, it will install
FidoCadJ on your system and you can launch it via the Start menu.
If you own an Apple Macintosh with MacOSX, you may download the FidoCadJ.app
bundle and treat it just like any other native application. Since Apple does
not seem to be very much prone to support Java, if you experience some
problems running FidoCadJ, please check you do have a Java runtime
correctly installed on your Mac. This is particularly true if you are using
the MacOSX Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks operating system. Normally, you will
have to download the Java runtime in a few clicks. We tried our best, but
the situation in 2007 was different from the actual one and Apple used to
welcome Java developers back then...
Remember that if there is a Greek letter after the version number of FidoCadJ,
this means that you are using a preliminary version of this program.
Basically, you are warned: those versions may be unstable!
----------------------------------------------
2 - Files contained in the source distribution
----------------------------------------------
In the following table you find a description of the trunk directory of
FidoCadJ source files. You may download the complete source repository by
using svn from the SourceForge repository. Check out the SF documentation
for doing this: https://sourceforge.net/p/fidocadj/code/HEAD/tree/6
File Comments
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
README This file
bin/ DIR Contains all the compiled classes and resources
busy being born/ DIR Contains screenshots of old versions of FidoCadJ
clean erases all the compiled classes
cleanall does a clean, erases fidocadj.jar, Javadocs
compile compile FidoCadJ
count does a wc (word count!) on all Java source files
createdoc runs Javadoc on all source files
createjar prepares fidocadj.jar
doc contains all Javadoc produced HTML files
gpl-3.0.txt the GNU public licence v. 3
icons/ DIR contains all icons (made with Gimp)
jar/ DIR contains fidocadj.jar as well as Quaqua
OSes/ DIR contains files specific for some OS
manual/ DIR all the LaTeX manuals sources
profile launches a profiler (jip)
rebuild does a clean and then runs FidoCadJ
run run FidoCadJ
src/ DIR contains all the Java source files
exclude_from_svn excludes all binary generated files from svn
sign.sh creates the signature for the applet
test/ DIR automatic tests for FidoCadJ
winbuild.bat build and run script for Windows (see par. 3.3)
-----------------------------------------------------
3 - Instructions about compiling and running FidoCadJ
-----------------------------------------------------
Ok, you just checkout from SourceForge SVN the FidoCadJ source files. Good :-)
FidoCadJ is a pure Java project, and for many reasons I prefer using a good
text editor as well as a few command line scripts, in order to compile and run
the code on which I am working.
You will thus find in the trunk directory (see section 2 of this
file) several scripts which will be useful for you, especially if you are
working in an Unix-like environment.
If you prefer using some kind of IDE such as Eclipse, you may try, but I
do not provide assistance about it and I will always refer to the scripts
I wrote. And no, I will not change my habits, sorry :-)
3.1 Compile and run the sources on a MacOSX operating system (>=1.4.11)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you are using MacOSX, just open up a terminal window, go into the
fidocadj/trunk directory and type:
./rebuild
FidoCadJ should be automatically compiled and launched. You can use the
following script to create a jar archive in the jar/ directory:
./createjar
3.2 Compile and run the sources on an Unix system
-------------------------------------------------
FidoCadJ can be compiled on an Unix system by using the following command into
the fidocadj/trunk directory:
./rebuild
FidoCadJ should compile and run. You can use the following script to create
a jar archive in the jar/ directory:
./createjar
3.3 Compile and run the sources on an Windows system
----------------------------------------------------
The provided scripts do not work on Microsoft Windows.
Kohta Ozaki has written a build/run script for Windows, called winbuild.bat.
It must be used with the action to be accomplished, as an argument:
run Launches application
clean Deletes all class files under .\bin
compile Compiles FidoMain.java and related sources.
This option refers to the compiler resolving dependency.
force Compiles source files of all directories.
The compiler starts on each source file. Very slow.
rebuild Clean and compile.
Alternatively, you might handle manually the compilation with the following
command, in fidocadj\trunk:
javac -g -O -sourcepath src -classpath bin -source 1.5 -target 1.5 .\src\FidoMain.java -d bin
to launch the compiled program, you should type:
java -classpath .\bin;.\jar;.\jar\ FidoMain
FidoCadJ should start.
3.4 Coding conventions
----------------------
The following coding conventions have been applied for the FidoCadJ source
code:
- the code should be compatible with Java 1.5
- tab set to 4 spaces
- blocks delimited by curly braces are indented as follows:
for(i=0; i<10; ++i) { // starting brace here
// indented code (4 spaces)
System.out.println("I counted up to "+i);
} // close brace here at the same level of the 'for'
- methods are indented as follows:
void dummy (int i, int j)
{ // put the starting brace here
System.out.println("Indent code");
} // put the closing brace here
- the class names always start with a capital letter, and so does methods
- variables never start with a capital letter
- an instance of the class does have its first letter in lower case
- public classes and methods should be documented with Javadoc syntax
- no lines longer than 80 characters
- commits should not break the build
- each commit *MUST* include a log
- predilect simplicity to unnecessary complication
- predilect quality to quantity
- discuss what you want to do BEFORE start coding
- documentation is important. Try to improve it and keep it up-to-date
3.5 Automatic tests
-------------------
To ease the maintain of a certain degree of quality control when working
on the source code, the FidoCadJ source repository comes with a number of
automatic tests scripts contained in the directory test/.
You may launch all the tests by using the script all_tests.sh contained
in this directory, or you may run the tests individually by browsing the
sub-directories containing them. The program is called by using the
fidocadj.jar archive which must be contained in the jar/ directory.
Ensure that this archive is updated with the ./createjar script before
launching any test.
The following table briefly describes the provided tests:
Test Comments
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
test/all_test.sh Run all the available tests.
test/export/test_export.sh Test the export on all available
file formats. A set of reference
files is provided, so it might be
updated if differences on the
export are introduced by purpose.
If a test is failed, this tells just that
the exported file is not identical to the
model which has been used. You may have a
look at the log file and at the result of
the export. You may decide that it is ok.
test/messages/test_messages.sh Test the coherence of all
installed interface languages against the
reference (which is the italian resource
file!)
test/size/test_size.sh Test if the size calculated for all
elements is the same as the one stored
as a reference. Any change to the way
the size is calculated will invalidate
the test if the size is invalid.
Note that the way those tests are written, they compare the results of an
operation involving FidoCadJ with a reference. In some cases, the reference
can be improved or updated.
In other cases, the differences might just contain unmeaningful data (such
as version numbers and so on).
3.6 Static code analysis and the quality of the FidoCadJ source code
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Static code analysis is a powerful tool to ensure code quality. It can not do
miracles, but it is an useful way to avoid common errors. Two tools are
routinely used to ensure that FidoCadJ is of the highest quality possible.
They are PMD and FindBugs:
http://pmd.sourceforge.net
http://findbugs.sourceforge.net
Those programs are different and somewhat complementary.
PMD works on the source files directly (see the pmd.sh script) and the results
are contained in the file fidocadj_pmd.html. This file is contained in the
source file repository and it provides a sort of a traceable metric of the
overall code quality.
FindBugs runs interactively and analyzes the jar file resulting after the
compilation and packaging.
The great care applied to the code quality has made sort that FidoCadJ has
had some good results in a quality assessment analysis done by researchers
working in the Department of Computer Science of the University of
Saskatchewan:
http://www.cs.usask.ca/documents/techreports/2013/TR-2013-01.pdf
If you work on FidoCadJ code, please do all your best to keep high the quality
of the code you are writing.
----------------
4 - Help wanted!
----------------
I am seeking for people interested in participating to the FidoCadJ project.
If you spot a typo (I am not a native English speaker), or an error in the
manual or in the program, any correction is very welcome. I will be very happy
to know what do you think about FidoCadJ. I would be glad to receive some
help: if you know Java and you want to work on the source code you will be
welcome.
If your Java coding is not fluent, you can participate to the project by
improving the manuals or translating the interface, or just giving an advice.
Feel free to contact me at davbucciNOPE@tiscali.it, or in the SourceForge
forums (the email address is valid without the nope part, but no
attachments, please). It is probably better to open a discussion in the
SourceForge forums, in order that the work can eventually be shared and
organized between all developers:
http://sourceforge.net/p/fidocadj/discussion/997486/
4.1 "I want to translate FidoCadJ in my language"
-------------------------------------------------
FidoCadJ is written in such a way that translating its interface is
particularly easy and does not need any programming skill.
If you have downloaded the source file repository, you should find the
interface resource files in the trunk/bin directory.
A language resource file has the name MessagesBundle_xx.properties, where
xx is the code for the language to which the translation is targeted.
Language code should follow ISO 639-1:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes
If you have a look at the beginning of the file
trunk/bin/MessagesBundle_en.properties, you should read something as
follow:
File = File
New = New
Open = Open file
Save = Save
SaveName = Save as...
Export = Export
Print = Print
Close = Close
...
The resources strings are organized in the form key = value. For example,
here is the head of the corresponding file for the interface in French, in
the file trunk/bin/MessagesBundle_fr.properties
File = Fichier
New = Nouveau dessin
Open = Ouvre un fichier
Save = Enregistrer
SaveName = Enregistrer sous un autre nom
Export = Exporter
Print = Impression
Close = Fermer
...
That is all. If you want to translate FidoCadJ in your language, you just have
to translate line by line the values in a language resource file, name it
accordingly to your locale and place it in the trunk/bin directory.
Pay attention that sometimes there are spaces at the end of the value
strings which need to be kept in place. You may be careful about always
providing complete files, since if a resource is missing, FidoCadJ can abort.
4.2 "I would like to participate to the coding activity"
--------------------------------------------------------
This is very nice from you. We will be happy for that. You can manifest
yourself on the SourceForum forums dedicated to FidoCadJ and declare what are
your skills and basically what you would like to do. We will discuss a little
in order to see if we can find an intersection between what you can do with
the FidoCadJ development strategy. The idea is to keep the work a little bit
organized and to know who does what. Have a peek to section 3.3 of this
README file to see what coding style should be applied to the sources.
Apart from that, FidoCadJ is GPL v.3 and this means that if you have the mood
for, you can download with SVN the source files and play *as you want* with
them. But keep in mind that if you want your contributions be included in the
FidoCadJ main stream, you MUST keep in touch with us in the SF forums and you
must discuss about what are you willing to do.
Once you decide what you want to do, you can run the Javadoc utility in order
to get a HTML description of all classes used in FidoCadJ. You will find that
useful to understand the underpinnings of the program. To do that, you can
run the trunk/createdoc.sh script, if you are in a Unix system.
Then comes the hard work... We can help you! Please come to the SourceForge
forums dedicated to FidoCadJ!
4.3 Things to do
----------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Review on SourceForge or OhLoh It is important that the users and
developers of FidoCadJ understand what is
good and what is bad in their favorite
software. Do not be shy to review FidoCadJ
on SourceForge or OhLoh!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Translate user interface Everything is done on FidoCadJ to make it
easy to translate its interface in any
language. You can significatively
contribute to the spread of FidoCadJ in
your country!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Translate manual This is an hard work, but it will be very
welcomed by the users of your country. You
will probably need an idea on how LaTeX
works.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
YouTube video tutorial I will put on the FidoCadJ's page a link to
the best video tutorials about FidoCadJ on
YouTube. Why don't you give it a try?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report bugs Use the bug and artifact tracking system of
SourceForge or drop me an email.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Export in Gerber format Exporting in graphical vector formats is
easy with FidoCadJ. If you want to add a
file format you just need to know it and
implement a Java interface. Gerber is
highly requested by people working on
PCBs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Export in WMF/EMF formats WMF/EMF are widely used in Windows and they
may be useful for including drawings in
vector format in Microsoft Word or Power
Point.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Linux packaging FidoCadJ could be distributed as a deb or
a RPM package. Can you prepare one?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------
5 - I found a bug...
--------------------
Every program contains bugs and FidoCadJ is not an exception. Even if all
the people involved in the development of FidoCadJ pay a lot of attention
at each release, some details could just go unnoticed.
If you ar familiar with the SourceForge interface, do not hesitate to
fill a bug report at the following address:
https://sourceforge.net/p/fidocadj/bugs/
If you feel uncomfortable with the SourceForge system, please drop a few
lines to davbucciNOPE@tiscali.it
-------------------
6 - Acknowledgments
-------------------
Code:
Davide Bucci, josmil1, phylum2, Kohta Ozaki, dantecpp
Beta testers:
Stefano Martini, F. Bertolazzi, Emanuele Baggetta, Celsius,
Andrea D'Amore, Olaf Marzocchi, Werner Randelshofer, Zeno Martini,
Electrodomus, IsidoroKZ, Gustavo, Kagliostro
... and many others!
Translations:
Davide Bucci (it, en, fr), Pasu (en), Olaf Marzocchi (ge),
Geo Cherchetout (fr), androu1 (es), sbcne (es), Miles Qin "qhg007" (zh),
DirtyDeeds (en), chokewood (nl), Kohta Ozaki (ja), Chemik582 (cs),
Pietro Baima (it), simo85 (es)
Libraries:
Lorenzo Lutti, Fabrizio Mileto, DirtyDeeds, Electrodomus, IHRaM group
Code snippets included in FidoCadJ:
http://www.centerkey.com/java/browser/
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~lambert/splines/natcubic.html
http://jroller.com/santhosh/entry/enhanced_scrolling_in_swing
http://www.thoughtsabout.net/blog/archives/000044.html
http://www.javareference.com/jrexamples/viewexample.jsp?id=99
http://elliotth.blogspot.com/2004/09/cocoa-like-search-field-for-java.html
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3775694/deleting-folder-from-java
When possible, the authors of the snippets have been contacted to gain explicit
permission of using the code in an open source project. If you own the
copyright of some of the reused code and you do not agree on its inclusion in
the FidoCadJ project, contact us via the SourceForge forum and we will remove
the offending code as fast as we can.
-------------
7 - Licensing
-------------
FidoCadJ is distributed with the GPL v. 3 license:
FidoCadJ is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
FidoCadJ is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with FidoCadJ. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
Download Latest Version
fidocadj-0.24.8.jar (715.7 kB)
