Autocoding project proposal.

[David Masterson]

>>>>> Timothy Rue writes:

> Language is abstraction, created in order to communicate, but it can
> never completely communicate reality.  A pictures says a thousand
> words..... And that ain't language.

Yes it is.  Language exists in order to communicate an abstraction of
reality from one entity (usually people, but it could also be animals)
to another.  That abstraction can be as simple as "hunger" to as
complex as the theory of relativity.  The same is true with pictures
since they are also an abstraction of reality and are used to
communicate what something (might have) looked like at some time.
There are many pictographic languages around.

> This project would move forward faster if people would chose to
> help.  And the sooner it get more complete the sooner more can be
> explained by way of example.

We *CANNOT* help if we cannot understand the abstraction of reality
that this project represents.  You must find the proper language by
which to communicate that abstraction.

> #! Python

I don't know Python (yet), but I think I get the idea.

> # PK file array - VIC Dictionary
> # Setting the standard variables to defaults

For brevity, I'm going to cut out your code and simply comment on it.

> vic = {

* Your case statement doesn't provide any info on what the VIC is
  supposed to do.  It appears to be merely creating an array.

> # Test!!!

* Your test is merely a printout of various array items -- again, no
  info on what the VIC is supposed to do.

> /*Reading in the PK file.

* Okay, I assume you get some information from the PK file, but I see
  nothing to tell me what it's supposed to contain.

>     current_line = READLN('PK_file')
>     PARSE VAR current_line vic.1 ':' vic.1.1 ';' vic.1.2 ';' vic.1.3

* Whoops, there is some reading going on here and a basic format
  (lines of "something" with 4 fields separated by ":" and ";").

> /* Writing the PK file */

* Writing?  We haven't done anything with what we read in yet?

> CLOSE('PK-file-out')

* What was achieved in this program?  Did you merely rearrange the
  data in the PK file?  If so, why?

-- 
David Masterson                dmaster AT synopsys DOT com
Sr. R&D Engineer               Synopsys, Inc.
Software Engineering           Sunnyvale, CA