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…
Check the flags
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.
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