[PythonCAD] An open file format for Computer Aided Design (CAD)

[Steve Hall]

From: Floris Bruynooghe, Jun 3, 2004 5:57 PM
> 
> > http://bugbear.blackfish.org.uk/~bruno/draft/
> >
> > I think it could be interesting.
> 
> Very interesting and promising. However I think it is a bad idea to
> make it standard behaviour in any CAD program. They should stick
> with what they have I recon and only provide this new file format
> for users who know what they want.
>
> [various issues with file system optimization]

Not sure if Bruno reads this list, but let me defend it as a concept
cooked up in reaction to a thread several of us had about how to track
CAD files like source code in a version control system.

The file system architecture is only a way to isolate changes to the
smallest portions to make CVS faster. I doubt there was much thought
into block sizes or other file system-related concerns. I frankly
would prefer these flexibilities and control over the reduced disk
access and similar physical limitations that seem to be vaporizing
under the pressure of Moore's Law and friends anyway.

BTW, (and slightly more on-topic) I also think it exposes a weakness
of markup file formats like XML. Diff (and CVS-like systems dependant
on it) require that the order of content and structuring whitespace be
absolutely controlled. This is somewhat counter to the idea that
certain flexibilities are permitted within markup. Is this a weakness
of diff or XML? What do we give up by using XML?


-- 
Steve Hall  [ digitect at mindspring.com ]

Cream... the Vim text editor in sheep's clothing!
  http://cream.sourceforge.net