[Simh] fprint_sym and parse_sym limitation

[Mark Pizzolato - Info Comm]

On Monday, September 14, 2015 at 9:24 AM, Tom Morris wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 10:33 AM, Mark Pizzolato - Info Comm <Mark at infocomm.com> wrote:
>>On Monday, September 14, 2015 at 6:20 AM, Paul Koning wrote:

>> ...  Or is there another way to submit
>> work?
> 
> If you are already a git user, then working directly from the github repository 
> and submitting pull requests is the way to go.  Non git users can merely send 
> me (mark at infocomm.com) complete changed files along with a description 
> (as verbose as you want) of what and/or why changes were made.  I'll commit 
> the changes to the repo on your behalf.
>
> I'd strongly encourage everyone who wants to contribute to SIMH to get a 
> Github account, because it makes the patch & review workflow much easier 
> and provides you with permanent attribution for your changes.  Git is just 
> another version control system and isn't that difficult to learn if you already 
> know one (or more).  Additionally, simple edits, like fixing typos in a README,
> can be easily done through the online editor on the web site which will
> automatically generate a patch and associated pull request for the repository
> owners (ie Mark) to review.
> 
> Try it, you'll like it!

I agree completely, however I'm happy to take input from everyone with minimal barriers.  Several of our most significant contributors do not use a source control system.
 
> p.s. Unfortunately, the core SIMH documentation is in Microsoft Word .doc 
> format which is a binary format that doesn't play well with version control 
> systems, in addition to its other downsides.  Has there been any consideration 
> to converting it to RST or some other text-based markup language which 
> would work well with git/Github?  Even .docx instead of .doc would be a 
> step forward.  It's not only more modern, so likely to be supported longer, 
> but it would also allow Github-based diff and preview using the 
> pandoc-based solution describe here: 
> http://blog.martinfenner.org/2014/08/25/using-microsoft-word-with-git/

Well, I agree that the Microsoft Word .doc format can't be usefully displayed in the github web UI.  

However, I manage, comment on, and eventually merge all changes submitted to the repo in local copies of the repo on my desktop or laptop system.  The local git graphical UI I use is GitExtensions which leverages kdiff3 for viewing as a merge tool.  This tool has absolutely no problems interpreting and showing changes in .doc format files, on the other hand it can't handle .docx format files.  Since things have been working just fine for these activities, there has been no motive to change the document formats at all.

That said, I've got a back-burner project which will migrate most of the simulator specific documentation to a more generic format which can leverage various display/output formats.  When that finally sees the light of day, we'll look at the remaining documents.

- Mark