Altay Brusan - Git for Electronic Circuit Design: CAD and Version Control for Electrical Engineers

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Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools have an essential role in modern-age engineering. Specifically, circuit design tools have been advanced and professionalized in recent years. These tools make the job, which is classically done using pen and paper, easy for engineers; however, CAD systems require a new development ecosystem. The collaboration, sharing, backup, and management phases in modern projects need special tools and methods. Luckily, the software engineering ecosystem is full of tools that have already proven their capacity. Among them is Git, which is a cornerstone of modern-age software development and has already been applied in mainstream projects, such as Linux development. In recent years, Git has found its way in CAD applications also. It has eased the way the team members share their work and provided a centralized backup system, and essentially, it provides the facility for team managers to monitor the progress. However, Git is a double-edged sword! Without an educated application, it could end up in total chaos or even project failure! For this reason, all newcomers or even seasoned engineers with no background in software engineering need to know Git.

Git has hundreds of commands with many parameters. Learning all of them is not practical and not required at all! In the first part of this book, we focus on the Git language essentials. However, the contents are prepared based on two mindsets.

First, no graphical user interface (GUI) is sufficient. There are many free, open source, and commercial GUIs available for Git; however, in reality these tools are not a golden bullet for all scenarios. Based on an unwritten software engineering rule, if a chance of a bug is one in a billion, that problem would definitely happen one day! Same goes for the Git-based management system. In a shared environment, the chance of a collision and data loss is not negligible. Unfortunately, there are situations where we need to intervene and apply a chain of a complex set of commands to solve a conflict or problem. These kinds of scenarios are not usually available in a GUI.

The other way is to keep stuff as simple as possible and follow a consistent streamlined method. In the first part of the book, from Chapters , this knowledge is applied by developing two open source hardware design projects, and we will see Git in action.

We are utterly grateful to Prof. Dr. Cengizhan Ozturk, who opened X-lab doors for curiosity, provided an excellent example for a nourishing future, and with his wisdom enlightened the room. We are grateful to Asuman Kolbasi for her great feedback and help in preparing the materials.

Altay Brusan is thoroughly thankful to Latifeh Gonbadi for her encouragement and affection in all aspects of his life. He appreciates and is grateful to his beautiful wife, Mahsa Modarresi, for her love, passion, support, and patience on this journey.