Feature interface programming

DSPuzzles

I am writing a feature that has a significantly complex interface. This means that the precondition in the feature is a mess. Is there a way to simplify the precondition? Such as loading annotations from another FeatureScript file, for example.

ilya_baran

Factoring portions of the precondition into predicates is the best I can suggest -- see for instance how booleanStepScopePredicate (defined in boolean.fs) is used in std.

DSPuzzles

This is precisely what I need. Thank you very much!

DSPuzzles

Actually, it's not fixing the problem as I thought it would. Is there a way I can reuse a predicate inside a precondition?

Because I have an interface that uses a query only in certain places, and I'm using an if statement to decide whether to use it or not. The thing is, the condition becomes a long unreadable mess because it's quite complex. Predicates would solve this if it weren't for the fact that they can only be used once.

ilya_baran

I see -- you want to avoid copy/pasting the if condition.  Unfortunately, there's no current way to do that...

DSPuzzles

The issue isn't copy-pasting. It's that my if statements look like this: (taken from the actual feature)

if ((definition.family == familyEnum.CURVED && (definition.curvedSolid == curvedEnum.CYLINDER || definition.curvedSolid == curvedEnum.CONE || definition.curvedSolid == curvedEnum.BICONE)) || (definition.family == familyEnum.POLYGONAL && (definition.polygonalSolid == polygonalEnum.PRISM || ((definition.polygonalSolid == polygonalEnum.PYRAMID || definition.polygonalSolid == polygonalEnum.BIPYRAMID) && definition.heightTypePYR == pyramidHeightEnum.HEIGHT))))

        {

            // Height

            annotation { "Name" : "Height" }

            isLength(definition.height, LENGTH_BOUNDS);

        }

In fact, here is a link to the featureScript file, since it is a public tool.