> The Cabrillo format is very well defined as a protocol. The problem
> is that there is now a blank field in the Stew Perry data where one
> used to be. By parsing for blanks, the parser fails. By parsing for
> field positions it should work just fine. The bug is in the parsing
> programs that parse on blanks, AND those that ignore the field
> placement and separate the fields with blanks (contrary to the
> Cabrillo specification).
>
> Either way, it can be fixed by the renegade programmers...
:-)
Well, the "missing field" isn't missing anymore. We fixed the documentation
error on the Cabrillo website that created the confusion.
QSO: 1800 CW 2002-12-28 1503 K7RAT 599 CN85 N0AX 599 CN87
The "feature" of adding RST to Cabrillo is now just one of those things
that makes this a unique contest. We are not going to undo all the hard
work that has been done in the past years by changing the spec yet.
Again, we are sorry for the confusion created by the error on the web
site that provided conflicting information.
Many software programs do generate the correct format - judging by that
over 400 logs have been submitted thus far by entrants (which is more
than we have had in all but one of the Stews thus far). If we removed
the RST, all of a sudden, these programs will be generating the wrong
format. The amount of work this saves on my end getting the logs into
the results generation software is immense. I would like to thank all of
those who have "done their part" to support this contest by going through
the effort to resubmit their log based upon the feedback of the robot.
While the idea of parsing to exact cursor positions might solve this, that
has been proven to be more trouble than it is worth. Many contests get
pretty close to the Cabrillo spec, but don't have the exact cursor
positions. Some mail program turns multiple spaces into tabs. There
would be a lot more angst in the contesting world if that route was
chosen.
73 Tree N6TR
tree@kkn.net
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