Curtis,
Thanks for the review and comments!
1) Yes, the word “Type” is probably an accidental leftover from an earlier
draft. It can be removed.
2) If we were to move the existing Format sentence you pointed out to page
202, after the related sentence, would that resolve the issue?
- MM
From: ibis-macro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ibis-macro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
On Behalf Of Curtis Clark
Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2017 12:53 PM
To: IBIS-ATM <ibis-macro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [ibis-macro] BIRD 187.1 questions
Hi Everyone,
At the last ATM meeting of 2016 we were all asked to review BIRD 187.1.
I have two questions about its language.
Thanks,
Curtis
1. Page 4 of the BIRD. "Format" section:
Unless otherwise noted, Usage Out arguments or data of Type Value or Default
provided as Format are effectively ignored by EDA tools.
I think this sentence is a bit confusing. In particular, "Type" should not be
capitalized, right? I think we want to be careful to avoid confusion with the
AMI reserved word "Type" (Float, String, Integer, etc.), which we don't mean
here, right? We simply want to say that Value or Default are generally ignored
for an Output parameter.
2. Last sentence of that same paragraph of the "Format" section:
Data of Usage Dep, Usage Info or Usage Out shall not be passed to the
executable model file by the EDA tool, unlike data of Usage In or InOut, which
shall always be passed to the executable model file by the EDA tool.
I know that this sentence was added as a clarification statement, but it is
essentially a restatement of something that's already in the spec on page 202
(see below). I think restating something two different places in the spec can
cause maintenance issues later, and it may lead to confusion if the reader
wonders whether we are trying to draw a distinction between the two different
statements. In addition, the sentence itself is entirely about Usage rules, so
it seems out of place in the Format section anyway.
(page 202 of the spec): "The EDA tool shall pass a string to the executable
model through the AMI_parameters_in argument. This string shall contain all of
the leaf-formatted Usage In and Usage InOut AMI parameters if there are any
defined in the .ami file. No other information may be included in this string.
The string shall always include the root name of the parameter tree, even if
there are no parameters to pass to the algorithmic model. The executable model
shall return a string to the EDA tool through the AMI_parameters_out argument.
This string shall contain all of the leaf formatted Usage InOut and Usage Out
AMI parameters if there are any defined in the AMI parameter definition file.
No other information may be included in this string."
