survex to therion data conversion

Wookey wookey@aleph1.co.uk
Thu, 6 Nov 2003 09:40:14 +0000


+++ John Pybus [03-11-06 02:27 +0000]:
> Wookey wrote:
> I've also found the *team difference a problem.

I wrote a (survex) patch last night to make survex parse the *TEAM line
(with a slightly expanded list over therion's :-), but
having done this I wonder if there is actually much point. What is this data
going to be used for? Is there any point trying to classify "disto",
"assistant", "clino", "notes", or might it just as well remain as a string
to be reported somewhere (then it can say 'Bosch DLE35', or 'Pybus's magic
surveyor')? The right thing to do here is to decide what survex and/or
therion is going to use this info for first and then agree on a syntax.

> >(it would be nice if the synonym "centreline" was allowed as well as
> >"centerline", then I wouldn't get an error every time I type it in :-) On
> >the other hand there is a lot to be said for a strict data format).
> 
> I have got this wrong *every* time I've used it so far!  I did think of
> complaining but considered that many people have to put up with every
> term in computer based languages being non-native so thought I'd just
> put up with one spelled 'wrongly'.

But this is European software - we can't go spelling it the American way :-)

> >* equates need to live inside centerline/endcenterline
> 
> I'm not sure things are quite so different.  Survex has an (implicit)
> root context.  In therion you don't, so you'll have to create your own
> container survey, but you can then put your equates in the same relative
> position as before.

OK - I did wonder if that was the right answer - I didn't have time to check
before writing this mail. That all seems fair enough, although it makes
writing a perl converter slightly trickier I suspect.

I'd be happy to collaborate on writing a 'survexinclude' thing for Therion if that's
deemed to be the right answer, although I don't do C++ if I can help it :-)

Wookey
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