[cad-linux] TomCAD

Hi,

I'm the author of the TomCAD CAD package. There have been some posts about it 
and I'd like to clarify some issues.

Currenty state:
TomCAD currently provides only very few 3D features. On the other hand, lots of 
2D features are already implemented
and ready for use. This includes geometry (curves), constructive geomety, 
texts, hatching, dimensions, file i/o,
printing, transformations, curve modifications, and more. TomCAD is no longer 
in planing stage or in a very early
alpha level. 2D should be usable. Please note that I did some testing, but I'm 
also
the developer. This means that it is more than likely that there are still some 
bugs. 

Future Development: 
As most 2D functionality is implemented, the focus this year will be on 3D. At 
the end of 2nd quarter, some 3D functions
will be available. The goal for this year is a well working set of feature 
based 3D functions with a good 2D/3D integration.
The actual number of the available 3D functions will depend on user request. If 
it turns out, that more 2D functions are requested,
I will first implement those.

Licencing:
There has been some comments about me trying to somehow circiumvent the GPL, 
under which the first versions
have been released. Quite the opposite is true. I really want TomCAD to be free 
as written in the GPL. But I added
the statement about commercial usage, because the used Hoops library does not 
permit the development of
commercial apps. I decided to add the mentioned statement until I talked to 
TSA, the vendor of the Hoops library,
if the GPL is compatible with their licence.
There has also been comments about GPL violations because of the missing source 
code. Well, TomCAD is
a Python based app. Python is a script language, so there are actually no 
binary packages. All TomCAD
packages do contain the source. The source is the program. No binaries. This 
being said, I have to admit that
there is a little exception. TomCAD makes use of C/C++ based libs. To use these 
libs from the Python
scripting language, a C/C++ glue code is nessessary. But this code is 
generated, so there is no reason for distribution.
This code and the surrounding makefiles/scripts are only nessessary when 
porting to a new plattform/distro.
Btw., the GPL does not force a developer to release source code. But the source 
code must made be available on request.

TomCAD and RedHat/Debian:
For a developer, the current Linux situation is not at all comfortable. There 
are many distributions with usually
two mostly used versions. Linux Kernel versions differ amoung the distribution 
versions (2.2 vs. 2.4) as do the Qt versions.
There are incompatible Python packages which do make things worse. 
As I do development on SuSE80, the RedHat version I made was not good enough. I 
will try to fix
this issue this week.

Bye, Thomas

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