[ibis-editorial] Re: Is Labels defined anywhere in this spec?

Walter,

You say:

"The purpose of (Labels is to give a name to each column of the Table. It is 
just for documentation. The EDA tool can present the Table to the user in a 
spreadsheet format for information to the user."

The v5.1 spec draft says:

"but is available to the EDA tool for information."

The key difference here is that "available to the EDA tool for information"
is different from "for information to the user".  Information for the EDA
tool can mean that the tool does things with that information (as in a
Usage Info parameter).  Information to the user mans that the tool would
at most show it to the user, but not act on it in any other way (as in
Model_Specific Usage Out parameters).

The problem I see is that in our v5.1 spec draft we don't spell out clearly
what Labels can/should or shouldn't be used for by the model maker and the
EDA tool.  There are simply no rules and definitions written for Labels.

Aside from the vagueness of the spec, the reason I started fussing about this
is because I am writing comments on BIRD 150 now, and it seems that Labels
are used in Dependency Table for more than just information.  Here is your
example in BIRD 150:

(Labels "Tx_Strength In" "Rs Out_Match" "Voh Out_Match")

"In", "Out_Match" and the like seem to be control parameters and this is why
I wanted to find out how we defined Labels.  If labels are only information
to the user, we shouldn't use it to contain control parameters for the EDA
tool.  Or if Labels are information to the EDA tool, what is the meaning of
"information"?  Is a control parameter information for the tool to know how
to interpret the data in the Dependency Table?

Unfortunately I can't find any good definition for the purpose and usage on
Labels, and I think we need to do something about that, otherwise will find
ourselves in a tough spot again...

Thanks,

Arpad
==============================================================================

From: Muranyi, Arpad
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 10:00 PM
To: ibis-editorial@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ibis-editorial] Re: Is Labels defined anywhere in this spec?

So the EDA tool would only use labels for display purposes?

Thanks,

Arpad
============================================================

From: 
ibis-editorial-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:ibis-editorial-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
[mailto:ibis-editorial-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]<mailto:[mailto:ibis-editorial-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]>
 On Behalf Of Walter Katz
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 9:55 PM
To: ibis-editorial@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:ibis-editorial@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [ibis-editorial] Re: Is Labels defined anywhere in this spec?

Arpad,

The purpose of (Labels is to give a name to each column of the Table. It is 
just for documentation. The EDA tool can present the Table to the user in a 
spreadsheet format for information to the user.

I will offer a BIRD for IBIS 6.0 to also allow (Labels for parameters of format 
List. Again to document each of the values in the List. The text of the BIRD is 
quite simple "The leaf Labels is optionally allowed when a parameter has a 
format List.  The number of items in Labels  must equal to number of items in 
the List. For example:

(My_Corner (Type Integer) (Usage In) (Description "This model supports fine 
process corners")
(List -2 -1 0 1 2)
(Labels "Extremely Slow" "Slow" "Typical"  "Fast" "Extremely Fast")
)

In this example, the parameter My_Corner has 5 integer values, and is passed 
into the DLL. The EDA tool can let the User choose an integer from -2 to 2, or 
can display a selection widget with the values "Extremely Slow", "Slow", 
"Typical",  "Fast" and "Extremely Fast". Similarly when displaying results to a 
User the EDA tool can display the values -2 to 2, or the names "Extremely 
Slow", "Slow", "Typical",  "Fast" and "Extremely Fast".

This is clearly an enhancement, and therefor was not submitted as a BIRD 
against 5.0.

Walter


From: 
ibis-editorial-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:ibis-editorial-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
[mailto:ibis-editorial-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]<mailto:[mailto:ibis-editorial-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]>
 On Behalf Of Muranyi, Arpad
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 7:53 PM
To: ibis-editorial@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:ibis-editorial@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [ibis-editorial] Is Labels defined anywhere in this spec?

Hello,

I wanted to look up the definition of "Labels" in our latest
and greatest spec, and I really can't find anything useful on
it.  This is the "best" description I see on pg. 178:

"Labels is an optional leaf within Table and it is followed by a String entry 
for each column
in the Table. Quoted null entries are permitted. Labels shall be positioned 
immediately
before the first row in a Table and are of the form:"

but this really doesn't spell out what does when it is there.
Pg. 179 adds a little more to the above:

"The optional Labels line is added above the first row. It is not sent or 
returned to/from the
algorithmic model, but is available to the EDA tool for information."

What does "to the EDA tool for information" mean in this last
sentence?  What is the EDA tool expected or allowed to do with
this information?  Shouldn't this be defined somewhere?

Thanks,

Arpad
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