*solve - a bug in survex having this among data ?

[Andy Waddington]

On Thursday 2005-09-15 16:08, Olly Betts wrote:

> The problem is that the file is processed in order, and each *solve
> executed when it is seen, so you must have the *fix before the first
> *solve, and also the *equates to link each survey to the previous
> one must be with the survey which they apply to, not all at the end.

Way back when we were trying to dream up a universal cave survey
data exchange format, it was one of my most cherished requirements
that there should be a definition of a format to describe a cave survey,
and perhaps, a definition of a format to say what to do with those data,
but that the two were of a differnet order entirely and should not be
mixed.

*solve falls into the category of things you tell your program to do with
the survey data, and I still think it is quite inappropriate to be in a file
which contains the raw data.

*equate, on the other hand, is fair enough. But if no instructions on what
to do with the data are read until all the data are assimilated, then the
sequence in which the data are presented should not really matter.

Andy