boards and schematics and parts lists

[Douglas Goodall <douglas...@mac.com>]

Friends,

I just went through a typical scenario regarding the N8 Beta cycle.

I found what I thought were the latest parts lists, one labeled something like hc3.lst
and the other labeled something like hc3-bom.lst. One was for the Beta board and
the other was for the original board.

Pardon me for making an assumption with names like that, that they both were about
the same revision and board.

So I carefully ordered from six distributors, and eventually discovered I had ordered
parts I didn't need, and not ordered parts I did need. And even as recently as yesterday
I was still making bad assumptions about revision levels and asking stupid questions 
based on this.

Boards need to be uniquely labeled, and schematics, board layouts and parts lists
need to be specifically associated with those board identifiers.

I think there needs to be sub-folders for each version of a board, and the version
specific documents and software need to be filed in those folders so people don't
stumble around like I have been working off bad information.

The hierarchical nature of the new wiki organization lends itself to this folder
versioning but we must take advantage of this in order to cut down on confusion.

All of our time is valuable, at all levels. Extra care about placing information 
intelligently will cut dow on the noise level and make for a happier community.

Humbly,

Douglas