All, I looked at BIRD 127.4 again to see what the options might be to say something about Usage Out parameters. I double checked, and this text applies to all parameters, Reserved and Model_Specific: |* All parameters must be in the following format: |* |* (parameter_name (Usage <usage>) |* (Type <data_type>) |* ({Format} <data_format> <data>) |* (Default <value>) |* (Description <string>)) There is another rule that Default and Format Value can't coexist in the same parameter. All other Formats are allowed to have Default. We could possibly refine/revise the notes below this syntax definition. Here are the relevant notes which could be considered: |* 4) The <data_format> selection of Value and Default are |* always mutually exclusive. Certain parameters may require |* Value or Default, but Value and Default are not allowed to |* be present together for the same parameter. |* 5) <data_format> is always required for selections other |* than Value. |* 6) Default is optional for <data_format> Range, List, Corner, |* Increment and Steps. |* 7) Default is not allowed for <data_format> Table, Gaussian, |* Dual-Dirac and DjRj. We should probably state that for Usage Out, - Default is not allowed - Format Value is not allowed - and <data> shall be omitted for all other <data_format>s. Table poses an interesting exception. According to BIRD 132, tables of Usage Out are still required to contain a single row of data, so that the tool would know how many columns are in a row when it reads the flattened data coming from the model. Questions, comments, suggestions are welcome. Thanks, Arpad ================================================================ From: ibis-macro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ibis-macro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Muranyi, Arpad Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 3:41 PM To: ibis-macro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [ibis-macro] Re: Some final questions on BIRD 123. Walter, The IBIS parser can only check against rules spelled out in the spec. We have to write something into the spec. The question is whether this should be handled as a general rule on the BIRD 127.x level, or on a case by case when a parameter can be Out. I think the latter would become too repetitious, so it seems that we might need to revise BIRD 127 on this topic... (The problem is that we just voted on it last Friday, but there should be a way to update it). Thanks, Arpad ================================================