Special Escapes

In property and label strings, there is a special encoding used to indicate certain attributes, such as hypertext references. These are in the form:

(||something||)

The following forms are recognized by Xic

(||sc||)
This sequence is simply converted to a semicolon (`;') when the string is internalized. In CIF, semicolons can not be included in label or property strings, as the character is reserved for line termination. Xic will convert semicolons in property strings and labels to this form when creating a CIF or native file.

(||text||)
This token may appear at the beginning of a label string, and indicates that the string is in long text format (see 7.9.5). These labels do not appear on-screen (the characters ``[text]'' appear instead), but the full string can be accessed with the label editor. Thus, large blocks of text can be saved as properties or spicetext labels without crowding the screen.

(||x:y type||)
This sequence indicates a hypertext reference, and can appear anywhere in a property or label string, in electrical data only. Hypertext references are generated when assigning properties by clicking on other devices in the drawing. Since Xic by default internally assigns device names and nodes, if one needs to reference a specific device or node, a hypertext reference provides a link which is independent of the assigned values, which can change. The x,y is a coordinate, in internal units, giving a location for the reference. This is generally the point where the user clicked to create the reference. The space-separated integer that follows gives the type of the reference, and is one of:

1	node reference
2	branch reference
4	device name reference
8	subcircuit name reference

In the case of a node reference, the coordinate must be over a connection point, or along a wire. For a branch, the coordinate must be over a branch reference point of a device. For a device name reference, the coordinate must be in or on the bounding box of a device. For a subcircuit name reference, the coordinate must be in or on the bounding box of a subcircuit.

When the string is used, the hypertext reference is resolved, and the actual text replaces the hypertext reference in the string.