Re: Name format limitations ...

• To: Flaggs, Don
• Subject: Re: Name format limitations ...
• From: Bill Hibbard [mailto:billh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
• Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2004 11:24:47 -0800

thanks for the tips!  Just to be absolutely clear, what are the reserved
characters that can't be used in VisAD "names"?  In one instance I see "
", "(", ")" and "."  Looking at Bill's initial email response showing
the example

 (time -> ((x, y, z) -> (t, p)))

one might infer that "-" and ">" are also reserved?

thanks...  dlf


-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 9:55 AM
Cc: Flaggs, Don; visad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


On Thu, 2 Dec 2004, Curtis Rueden wrote:

> One simple way to do it would be to have a method such as
> GraphicsModeControl.showUnderscoresAsSpaces(boolean), which is
respected
> whenever type names are drawn to a display. . . .

Thanks, Curtis, for jogging my memory. There is a method
ScalarMap.setUnderscoreToBlank() that will do this on axis labels.

Thanks, Bill

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 4:15 AM
Cc: visad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Hi Don,

> Some of our user data comes in tagged with human readable names (eg.,
> with spaces) which we'd like to maintain as is, but which causes
> problems for RealType/ScalarType objects when they hit validateName().
> I guess the question is why are there "reserved" characters for the
> RealType/ScalarType name String's, or alternatively, what would break
if
> a name were just any String?
>
> Would this work and are there hidden effects???

This wouldn't work: it would break the code that parses more
general MathType expressions like:

  (time -> ((x, y, z) -> (t, p)))

I recommend using underscore "_" in place of spaces in RealType
names. I really dislike the use of spaces in Windows file names,
because of all the trouble they cause with programs that need
file names as arguments.

I believe VisAD includes methods that let you alias RealType
names to other strings that do include special characters.
Perhaps someone who uses these methods can fill you in.

Bill

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Name format limitations ...
    • From: Curtis Rueden