#919: simfactory fails for standard thornlist copied using sync ---------------------+------------------------------------------------------ Reporter: knarf | Owner: eschnett Type: defect | Status: review Priority: major | Milestone: ET_2012_05 Component: Other | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: ---------------------+------------------------------------------------------
Comment (by eschnett):
Roland's views were the same as those of the original Simfactory author. However, users complained loudly that having @@ constructs in thorn lists, option lists, or parameter files was inconvenient, because these then cannot be used without Simfactory any more. The suggested remedy was to provide "templates" that can be used without Simfactory (with reasonable default settings), and Simfactory would modify these according to its settings.
I would like to stress that having @@ constructs in Simfactory's templates was indeed quite confusing to many people. Calling these e.g. "option list template" confused people ("what is a template?"), and with the instructions ("these are almost like real option lists, you only need to replace all @@ constructs by the settings you want") people complained ("there are syntax errors and strange @@ characters in there! your template is broken"). The original Simfactory author does not want to go back there.
Now, one could take the stance that one simply tells people to read the documentation, but then it may be better to ask the experts to read the documentation...
Please suggest something that makes things work out of the box for most novices, but still doesn't surprise you, and/or gives you full control if you want to disable this feature in Simfactory.