Re: [Tlf-devel] Problems noted during Sweepstakes

[Thomas Beierlein]

Hi Ben,

thanks for the report for the SS behaviour.

Am Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:56:36 -0500
schrieb Ben Coleman NJ8J <address@hidden>:

> The Sweepstakes input parsing has some problems.  I consistently
> noted that a precedence of U would get dropped if the fields were not
> entered in order (I often found myself entering in the order Prec
> Check Section Serial, as I would fill in Prec Check Section while
> listening to QSOs before I was answered, then fill in the serial when
> I finally got the QSO).  Precs A and B wouldn't be dropped, prec U
> was.  I suspect the prec code was incompletely updated when U was
> added.  

I just looked into it. You are right. Prec U is not correctly handled.

> 
> I also had a couple or three QSOs where the serial and prec got
> dropped. I'm not yet sure what lead to this.

I had a look into the code. The automatic recognition rules are not
waterproof. Especially Serial and check can be missinterpreted if not
entered in a speial order. I would suggest to make that non-ambiguous
by the following rules:

- Precedent has exactly one letter
- Section is any combination of 2 or three letters
- Check has always two digits (04 for 2004)
- Serial has at least three digits (QSO nr. 1 has to be entered as
  001)
- precedent and section has to be separated by check or serial or a
  blank
- similar goes for check and serial

That would make definite rules for interpreting and allows nearly any
order and an use of any number of blanks (>=0) between them:

74B024CT = 024B 74 CT = B 74 CT 024 = ...

What do you think?


73, de Tom DL1JBE.


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"Do what is needful!"
Ursula LeGuin: Earthsea
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