Re: [Gnucap-devel] prototype name -- bug or feature?

[al davis]

On Friday 25 January 2013, Felix Salfelder wrote:
> while i'm at it: i've now implemented
> const CARD* find_card(string name, CARD_LIST* Scope, bool
> nondevice=0); in LANGUAGE as follows.

It may work in your case, but it doesn't work in general for 
possible future work.

The big issue is the Verilog paramset.  As is, it is incomplete 
and incorrect.  In general, according to the standard, it can be 
applied to any type, creating a new type as a variant of the 
original.  The spice .model is a subset, with another set of 
issues.

The existing code is incorrect for spice too when there are more 
than one device type with the same letter, for example two 
mosfet plugins that are identified by the model name or "level" 
keyword.  The built-in ones work, but plugins override the 
letter so you can have only one.

Because of this, the plan is to remove the code distinction 
between a "model" and an instance.  An instance is a clone of a 
prototype.  No need for two.

The implementation is as a device with no connections, so 
testing whether you found a device or not is not valid.

"find_proto" looks for a prototype device.  A prototype device 
is a device.  It just isn't connected to anything.

So, how about just rejecting devices that are connected?