[CQ-Contest] A Plea to Cabrillo Contet Robot Writers

[VE5ZX]

>Cabrillo is MUCH easier to parse than either ADIF or XML.  Especially
>for Novice programmers -- and for those trying to read the files without
>a computer.  (seriously, you can print a Cabrillo file & the printout
>will make sense.  You can't say that for a printout of an ADIF or XML
>file.)

I have parsed and visually inspect many XML files. They are just as easy to 
visually read as Cabrillo - perhaps even simpler because the physical 
location of characters in a field is usually of little concern. Have a look 
at any XML file in a browser and you can see how simple it is to read.

> A Cabrillo file can be easily loaded into a spreadsheet for further
> analysis.  You can't do that with ADIF or XML.  (I suppose you *can*,
> but it's MUCH, MUCH, MUCH harder)

Opening an XML file in Excel 2003 is very simple. Just select the file and 
open it. Excel will give you some choices as to how you want the file opened 
for inspection and manipulation. The same cannot be said for ADIF or 
Cabrillo. For more details see
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA011019641033.aspx
It does take a bit more skill to manipulate an XML file in Excel but 
learning is a small price to pay for progress :)

Syl

Sylvan Katz - VE5ZX
Saskatoon, SK