[Magic-dev] Re: Magic 7.5

[R. Timothy Edwards]

Dear Salim,

> I am sending this email to 
> ask about a potential bug in Magic 7.5. I posted about the problem in 
> Cornell mailing list but got no response. I installed Magic 7.5 and 
> noticed the plow command doesn't work properly. Most of the time it 
> merely erases what's under the box. I removed it and installed the 7.4 
> version, and the command worked correctly. Has anyone noticed this 
> problem before? Is this a bug in the release or could it be just on my 
> computer?

Yes, unfortunately, I made some changes to the DRC rules database
that also happens to be used by the plow command.  So the plow command
is "temporarily" broken, although I admit to having taken a rather long
time without getting around to fixing it.

 From the "code changes" page on the website:

    July 29, 2006 at 2:40am
    2006-07-28 08:57 tim
    Major, major changes to the router code in Magic. Reorganized the
    initialization routines for the routers so that they are stable with
    respect to reloading technology files and rescaling magic's internal
    grid. Fixed the code that is exercised by the "tech drc ..." command,
    and used this code to set the maze router properties. Added a "tech
    drc surround" command option and associated code, which is currently
    not yet attached to the maze router initialization (but will be done
    soon). One side effect: The "plow" rule setup has been removed, so
    the "plow" function is temporarily disabled, until I can put them
    back in, based on the "tech drc" code.

As you can see, "temporarily" means over two years. . . really, I don't
use plowing myself, and so I have been waiting for someone to complain
about the lack of plowing functionality in version 7.5.  So I'll move it
up on my priority list.

						Regards,
						Tim

+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Dr. R. Timothy Edwards (Tim)   | email: tim.edwards at multigig.com     |
| MultiGiG, Inc.                 | web:   http://www.multigig.com      |
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