Re: gEDA-user: PCB format wishlist

[kai-martin knaak <kmk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Stefan Salewski wrote:

> One disadvantage of that format may be:
> We have lines starting with a letter followed by up to 16 decimal
> numbers -- hand editing such lines may be difficult. Not a problem for
> me, I do not intend hand editing.

More precisely: Positional parameters are bad.
Mapping position to meaning makes it hard to add additional parameters 
anywhere but at the end. Structured data does not easily fit easily. It is 
next to impossible to throw meaningful errors if values are in the wrong 
order. Instead, the error likely goes unnoticed on read and can produce 
havoc at unsuspected places further down the flow.

This is not a matter of style, but a major flaw.
It is the very reason why a completely new format for pcb might be worth the 
effort.

---<)kaiamrtin(>---
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak
Öffentlicher PGP-Schlüssel:
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x6C0B9F53



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