Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Ralph Lange <[email protected]> · Fri, 14 Feb 2014 09:54:08 +0100

On 13.02.2014 22:55, Westfall, Michael D wrote:

A question regarding MSI (Macro Substitution and Include) tool:

Is there a way to set the value of a macro in the substitutions file for later use without triggering an immediate substitution?

For example, say I have a template file xxx.template:

    $(FNAME) $(LNAME) is a $(SEX)

and my substitutions file xxx.substitutions:

    file xxx.template {
       pattern {FNAME, LNAME, SEX}
       {John, Smith, Male}
       {George, Jones, Male}
       {James, Taylor, Male}
       {Robert, Redford, Male}
       {Larry, Cableguy, Male}
       {Susan, Williams, Female}
       {Judy, Johnson, Female}
       {Melinda, Martin, Female}
       {Cathy, Lewis, Female}
       {Linda, Hall, Female}
    }

and the output after running "msi -S xxx.substitutions"

 John Smith is a Male

    George Jones is a Male
    James Taylor is a Male
    Robert Redford is a Male
    Larry Cableguy is a Male
    Susan Williams is a Female
    Judy Johnson is a Female
    Melinda Martin is a Female
    Cathy Lewis is a Female
    Linda Hall is a Female

What I'd like to do is avoid typing "Male" and "Female" so often (perhaps I have hundreds and hundreds of substitutions to do) by having a substitutions file something like this:

    file xxx.template {
       Set SEX=Male
       pattern {FNAME, LNAME}
       {John, Smith}
       {George, Jones}
       {James, Taylor}
       {Robert, Redford}
       {Larry, Cableguy}
       Set SEX=Female
       {Susan, Williams}
       {Judy, Johnson}
       {Melinda, Martin}
       {Cathy, Lewis}
       {Linda, Hall}
    }

Any tips for doing something like this with the existing tool?

global { SEX=Male }
file xxx.template {
      pattern {FNAME, LNAME}
      {John, Smith}
      {George, Jones}
      {James, Taylor}
      {Robert, Redford}
      {Larry, Cableguy}
}
global { SEX=Female }
file xxx.template {
      pattern {FNAME, LNAME}
      {Susan, Williams}
      {Judy, Johnson}
      {Melinda, Martin}
      {Cathy, Lewis}
      {Linda, Hall}
   }

Cheers,
~Ralph

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System