Symbol editor: Copy-paste of symbol into different library results in empty description field

[Christoph Nieß]

Steps to reproduce:
- Take any symbol in the symbol editor, copy it (right click -> "Copy Symbol")
- Select a different library
- Paste the symbol into it (right click -> "Paste Symbol")

Expectation: Symbol completely copied
Reality: Description field of new symbol is empty (Everything else seems to be there)

This has been happening for at least the last few nightly builds, so it's not brand new.

Version Info:
Application: LibEdit
Version: (5.1.0-1458-gf057bfc7c), debug build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.54.0 LibreSSL/2.6.5 zlib/1.2.11 nghttp2/1.24.1
Platform: Mac OS X (Darwin 18.7.0 x86_64), 64 bit, Little endian, wxMac
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,STL containers,compatible with 2.8)
    Boost: 1.69.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.54.0
    Compiler: Clang 9.0.0 with C++ ABI 1002

Build settings:
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON
    KICAD_STDLIB_DEBUG=OFF
    KICAD_STDLIB_LIGHT_DEBUG=OFF
    KICAD_SANITIZE=OFF

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

Same with keywords and datasheet, all of which come from the .dcm file.

@Wayne, will the s-expr symbols still have info split into two files?

[jean-pierre charras (jp-charras)]

Hi Jeff,
If you want to know why the .dcm files exist, the reason is due to the fact the early time Eeschema was using in the school (a very long time ago...) most of computers was using a slow link for the network connection.
I mean IDE network cards with a rate of 2400 bits per seconds.
So, Loading a few library files from the server (a local installation was not an acceptable solution) was a matter of minutes.
(Note also a similar file was existing for .mod footprint files, but was removed some time ago)

Therefore I added a small file associated to library files to load the list of symbols, their keywords and doc links) to be able to load the symbol list with an acceptable delay.

Note also these time constraints are existing now (see the fp-info-cache file).
But nowadays the .dcm file constraint is no longer existing, and this file is not needed, as long as the symbols are living in one file by library, and not in a lot of separate files.

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

On 8/10/19 7:13 AM, Jeff Young wrote:
> Same with keywords and datasheet, all of which come from the .dcm file.
>
> @Wayne, will the s-expr symbols still have info split into two files?

No. Every thing will be in a single file. The LIB_ALIAS object will go
away. There will only be LIB_PART to define symbols. This should
greatly simplify everything in Eeschema. I've already started working
on it but it's a significant change so it's going to take a while.

>
> ** Summary changed:
>
> - Symbol editor: Copy-paste of symbol into different library results in empty description field (MacOS)
> + Symbol editor: Copy-paste of symbol into different library results in empty description field
>
> ** Changed in: kicad
> Status: New => Confirmed
>
> ** Changed in: kicad
> Importance: Undecided => Medium
>
> ** Changed in: kicad
> Milestone: None => 6.0.0-rc1
>

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

Thanks, @JP and @Wayne. I'll just wait on this one then....

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

KiCad bug tracker has moved to Gitlab. This report is now available here: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/1810