[Ktechlab-devel] Abstraction and properties of components

[Alan Grimes]

> Currently I don't know which way of implementation is better. Any ideas on this?

Hmm, let's compare circuit and component:


A circuit is a collection of interconnected components in a circuit
document.

A component can be thought of as a hard-coded sub-circuit that contains
zero, one or many elements that have some relationship to each other.

As a hard-coded circuit, it exposes some properties from the elements it
contains in a meaningful way. It also contains a visual representation
that usually approximates a standard representation for that kind of
sub-circuit.

Now, if we re-factor things, it might be possible to have a new set of
circuit fragments which would be equivalent to a circuit document
containing external connections for things that are intended to be its
pins. So Everything could be a circuit fragment. The only problem is
composing them into supercircuits which are also circuit fragments...

Then you would need to be able to "bundle" a circuit fragment into a
component by binding external connections to pins and then binding
selected variables and exposing them in the UI. So the UI would feel
like it is now but there'd be a new option for opening the model for
components which are not just a single element, which would open a
circuit editor for that model.

Also there's the issue of managing different simulators, ie the logic
simulator versus the analog simulator.


-- 
DO NOT USE OBAMACARE.
DO NOT BUY OBAMACARE.
Powers are not rights.