KIC(1)

✨ KIC(1) ✨ — layout drawing, bestie edition

okay so. you know kic? the manual page KIC(1)? we're doing this. sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, and let's get into it, because this one is a whole vibe.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

kic — an editor for integrated circuits and photolithography masks. yes really. she draws semiconductor patterns. icon behavior tbh 👑

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

kic [-t <tech>] [-d <display>] [<kicfile>]

now let's break down every single one of these, no skipping, because i said so 💅

• -t <tech> — so the layer names and your general preferences get pulled from a file that lives in the library under the name kic_tech.<tech>. like, say you pass -tabc — boom, the technology file kic_tech.abc is what gets used. where does she go looking for these technology files? the current directory, or wherever you told her via the environment variable KIC_LIB_DIR. 🧚
• -d <display> — this is the X11 display name to be used. if you don't hand her one, $DISPLAY gets used instead. lowkey convenient.
• <kicfile> — this is the file that should be edited. the main character of the whole operation fr fr.

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

kic is an interactive graphical editor for drawing patterns used to generate photomasks for lithography — you know, the whole production-of-integrated-circuits situation. it's giving very serious engineering, and honestly? she ate.

here's a note straight from the README file that comes with the distribution:

KIC is distributed by Whiteley Research Inc., www.wrcad.com.

and now the disclaimer, because we keep receipts around here:

Disclaimer: Steve Whiteley and Whiteley Research Inc. don't guarantee or imply that this software is suitable for any purpose. This is free public domain software, use at your own risk. 💀

if you need more help, there's the built-in help, or you can hit up the stand-alone help reader kichelp — she reads the exact same file, so you're covered either way. 🫶

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💜 ENVIRONMENT 💜

• KIC_LIB_DIR — the directory where technology files, the logo font, and help texts are stored. the default depends on the installation, but probably /usr/lib/kic. iykyk.

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🌈 FILES 🌈

• $KIC_LIB_DIR/kic_help.txt — the help file for kichelp and the builtin help. formatted ASCII, and yes you can modify it. go off. ✨
• $KIC_LIB_DIR/kic_tech.* — the technology files. all of them. the whole squad.
• $KIC_LIB_DIR/logofont.kic — the font for the LOGO (text writing) command. cute little font, does her thing. 🎀

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😭 BUGS 😭

okay bestie, this is the part where we hold hands and read carefully. 🫶

• Too large files (flat of several dozens of MB) may hang the program. not a drill. back away slowly.
• If a layer is not defined in the current technology file, the program just complains and shows nothing. the user has to add the layer manually — either with the ATTri command or in the technology file itself. no layer, no visuals, periodt.
• Layer names with less than 4 characters may not be recognized in imported files, if the layer definition line does not end with ';' (semicolon). so. semicolon. don't forget her.
• Coordinates with resolutions below 1/10 of the unit (1um normally) cannot be generated with KIC — but they are displayed correctly. and heads up: coordinate entry (CTRL-E) is a replacement for pointing, therefore also subject to grid snapping (i.e, truncation). so your beautiful little precise number might get truncated. it's giving tragedy ngl.

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• kichelp (stand-alone help reader, no manpage). she's the friend with the answers. 💖

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⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

This manpage was written by Y.Bonetti [gopher://freeshell.org/1/users/yargo] for the Debian GNU/Linux project, based on the KIC sources, its accompanying documentation, and experience. respect the author, she did the homework so we didn't have to. 🫡

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and that's the whole page, bestie 💅 this version was dated $Date: 2007/11/06 16:11:07 $ and stamped $Revision: 1.1 $ — so shoutout to KIC(1), 2007 edition, still serving looks. mwah. 🎀✨