AA1, not A7, should follow AA

I was drafting a set of maritime signal flags, one per draft block, when I finished Zulu & went on to make the first repeater/substitute the numbering scheme behaved oddly:

This picture is actually of a fourth flag, after I had completed the three repeaters, & came to the conclusion that I ought to post about the experience.

I feel like the default ought to be to add numbers to the symbol(s) assigned to the zero-point. The second point shouldn’t have been D8, it should have been AA1. When I changed the zero-point for 1st Substitute to Æ, the next point should have been Æ3, not A7, (yeah, it took me a moment to notice, & I changed the dependents first. I would not think existing points should rename.)

So, yeah, I feel like that AA1 etc. didn’t follow AA is an issue, but it would be nice if the notion was extended to make [character]1 follow [character].

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Hmmm… I know the exact spot in the code that sets the list of “next” basepoint name. I had played around with it before, because I like to use a semantic base name - like B for back, F for Front, C for collar, S for sleeves… etc… thing is you can change the base point name, but it will still name next point with the original. It will name the points from A to Z. Never did 27 draft blocks in a pattern so I have / had no clue what happens after Z. :slight_smile:

It’s obviously language dependent too.

For ex: here’s the code for the English string in the GetLabelBase() function:

const QString def = QStringLiteral("A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z");

We should definitely look at some other ideas for naming the block base & child points. I hacked the string to change it to B, F, C, S… as that’s a normal order for drafting men’s suits I use.

In any case we should fix the current behavior, and if we can improve it. Maybe make it user configurable somehow? I’m open for any ideas.

Agreed. So let me ask… what’s the next base point name after AA? Is it BB?

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Yup!

As far as configuration goes, I think the best way is to have both A. user configuration of the block base list & B. child points naming after the base point.

I believe some people also wish that the points would count up alphabetically rather than {base}1,2,3… But I can’t see that being very useful in the Seamly environment. Most patterns would get to AAA way too quickly.

But like you quoted me at the end of your post, as long as the children are named after their default base, I’ll feel like it’s reasonable.

:unicorn:

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So basically we need the behavior to all least stick to Z… AA, AA1, AA2…AAn; BB BB1, BB2… etc. and not what it’s doing now ?

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Yeah, other stuff would be nice, but I think that’s the basics.

:unicorn:

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