[therion] Re: arranging files for big systems

[John Pybus]

Wookey wrote:

>
> Ah - I think both of those are notations for when there are two
> plausible/significant possible readings. e.g 0+8 could mean the point is on
> the wall, but there is 8m of bedding plane going off beyond, or keyhole
> passage where the point is on the wall of the canyon but the upper passage
> goes off 8m to the left.
>
> 1/5 could be two things: Either is has the same meaning but a
> different notation or it is means 1.5 and not been transliterated on data
> entry.
>
> Recording 'both' values like this is very useful when drawing up but of
> course it is not a standard notation, and the software should probably take the 'bigger' number, although if it marked both when drawing
> centrelines that would be handy.


If therion (and/or survex) is going to support this useful concept[0] then we need to decide on a consistent syntax.  I'd strongly recommend against using '/' as it's so commonly used as a more robust decimal point by surveyors, and would lead to a lot of the sort of confusion that Wookey's already in.  The usual ',' and ';' sequencing operators are respectively the common european decimal point, and the survex comment, so are out too.

I'd suggest one of '+', '&', ':' or '|', with a slight preference for '|'.  For the record I currently record this type of thing as comments so is never interpreted by software, and I use no consistent syntax.

John


[0] Even if this is only to parse it then take the larger value, it still allows the data file to represent what was actually recorded in the cave without resorting to comments.