Subject: 80 column line extension

From: Stephen Peters <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1993 08:37:08 -0800

Hello IBIS folks --

Eric Bracken writes:

>Is it time to contemplate an "extension" character (a la the famed "+"
>in Spice) that can be used to break long lines up across several
>"physical" lines of the input file without violating the sacred and
>venerable limit of 80 characters?

  Well, we could, but in the case were talking about the information
is suposed to be formated in specific columns with column headers.
It doesn't do much for human readability (or understanding) to have
something like:

COLUMN 1		COLUMN2		COLUMN 3	+
---------		-------		--------
COLUMN4		COLUMN5
-------		-------

DATA			DATA		DATA		+
DATA		DATA
DATA			DATA		DATA		+
DATA		DATA

     It seems to me that the problem is with trying to DISPLAY the
essential pwr/gnd mapping information. Perhaps there is a better
way to format this information?  Maybe another keyword?  I don't
know, im just offering food for thought.

	Best Regards,
	Stephen Peters
	Intel Corp.

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 93 12:08:55 -0500

Well, we could add a new section to the file, 

[Pin_Mapping]	gnd		pwr
1		GNDBUS1		PWRBUS1
2		GNDBUS2		PWRBUS2
...
11		GNDBUS1		NA
12		GNDBUS1		NA
13		GNDBUS1		NA
...
31		NA		PWRBUS1
32		NA		PWRBUS1
33		NA		PWRBUS1

This would come after the [Pin] section, and would be TOTALLY OPTIONAL
and NOT REQUIRED.

Furthermore, it leaves probably 30 characters or so for upward expansion
while still observing the 80 character limit that everyone seems to
feel is so essential to preserving Western civilization as we know it;
and it does not add horrendous complexity to the parser.

Comments?

--Eric