Re: attributes, possible interface

[al davis]

On Mon, 18 Apr 2022 22:02:31 +0200
Felix Salfelder via Gnucap-devel <gnucap-devel@gnu.org> wrote:
> Looking at the standard, it seems we want attributes in anything inherited 
> from
> CARD. For this, we need a section similar to the parameter section (but
> simpler),


I had in mind something simpler.  Just store the whole thing as a
string.

What is the difference between a parameter and an attribute?

Simple .. we know what to do with parameters.  We don't know what to do
with attributes, other than to store them and pass them on.  If
sometime later, some attributes come up that might be useful, then we
can parse the string, ignoring anything unfamiliar.

I was thinking, related to current activity about schematics .....
What would be there is meta-data like the location and font of things
that might be there.  In the case of gEDA/Lepton ...  just store the
string.  Gnucap can't do anything with it, so the reason for keeping it
is to facilitate the lossless round trip so the Verilog file can be
considered archival.  

It might look something like 
(* lepton="T 23900 61600 5 10 1 1 0 0 1" *).

If there is more than one, just cat them.

It should be in CKT_BASE.


Then, the lang_ plugins need to accommodate it, but only Verilog really
needs it.  The others can just ignore it or treat it as a comment.