FAQ

Mason

    • I’m getting a “problem with file” error- what’s up with that?

        • Most likely, this is an XML problem- see FAQ 5.4.3

        • Check to make sure the path is set correctly- if this is a new run directory make sure your paths.txt exists and is set up correctly

        • File names are case sensitive on many systems.

    • I’m getting a “port found not to attach to a node” error- but I’m sure that I’ve defined the node in a device

        • Make sure your alias name speling and capitalizations are correct. Alias names are case sensitive

        • Make sure your file name exists and the path is set correctly- on some systems the file names are case sensitive.

    • I’d like my output to…

muParser

    • Why do I get an error when I try to use a constant (j, c, π, etc.)?

        • Make sure you use the underscore in front of the constant (_j,_ c, _pi)

        • Make sure you use the correct capitalization (_pi)

    • Why isn’t my variable/ goal/ calculation working?

        • Make sure your speling and capitalIzations are correct in the formula. muParser is case sensitive.

        • When using S--Parameters, remember both underscores: S_1_1, S_1_2, S_2_1, S_2_2, etc.

XML

    • Why don’t you make your XML processing more robust? Why doesn’t it give more useful debug information

        • I use a library to process the XML files because I don’t want to twiddle text.

        • Many freeware XML editors offer useful debug information.

    • Why do you use XML?

        • I use XML for many reasons. It’s a “standard” way of doing things, so the learning curve shouldn’t be too hard.

        • I don’t have to deal with writing text-twiddling code, which is nice. Writing out files after optimizing the values is very painless.

        • Using XML allows me to be fairly forgiving about the order in which commands are given.

        • XML also gives a lot of flexibility in adding new features later. For example, should I add a GUI, component artwork can be defined in the primitive files or sub--circuits and I don’t need to worry about forward or backward compatibility.

    • How do I fix an “Error processing Mason file”?

        • Try loading your file in a general purpose XML reader- if it loads okay this may be a Mason issue. Hint: Microsoft's XML viewer is broken.

        • Make sure your quotes are normal quotes, " not “ or ”

        • Make sure you have no spaces in your brackets. The extra space at column 3 below will cause this error.

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Copyright 2010, Gregory Kiesel