Although “everybody knows” the syntax of .cfg files (they are good old .ini
files), the devil is in the details. There are multiple variants of the .ini
format. Just read the Varying features section on the Wikipedia
page. Could we
please have an exact specification of the format as used by MSFS? (Or is the
plan to switch to JSON soon anyway?) Apparently there is no line continuation
possibility. Having a such feature in the file format would be very nice. Just
think how much easier it would be to edit this:
mach_hi_corrected_commanded_ne_table = \
\
0.90 : 1.0 : 22.57,\
\
0.00 : 62.0 : 82.50,\
0.42 : 77.0 : 95.40,\
0.51 : 80.2 : 98.50,\
0.61 : 84.8 : 101.10,\
0.70 : 89.1 : 103.10,\
0.79 : 92.2 : 105.70,\
0.93 : 96.0 : 108.06,\
1.00 : 98.2 : 108.06
than this:
mach_hi_corrected_commanded_ne_table = 0.90:1.0:22.57,0.00:62.0:82.50,0.42:77.0:95.40,0.51:80.2:98.50,0.61:84.8:101.10,0.70:89.1:103.10,0.79:92.2:105.70,0.93:96.0:108.06,1.00:98.2:108.06
Don’t you think? (This is just the table in question from some existing
aircraft, slightly edited to have less pointlessly precise values.) Sure, with
unlimited resources the simulator’s Dev Mode would have a graphical tool to
manipulate actual underlying curves, instead of you having to tinker with
numerical tables intended to describe such curves, but I am not holding my
breath. Also, any developer with some scripting experience will eventually get
bored and come up with some workflow where the .cfg files they write are
passed through some suitable preprocessor or filter, and that then enables
them to write tables like that on multiple lines with nicely aligned columns.
Personally I use the venerable m4 macro processor for this at the moment.
(Using a full-fledged macro processor has the additional benefit that you can
use macros for instance to turn measurements in inches or metric units, taken
from an aircraft’s specifications or drawings, into the feet that MSFS wants.)
But it is a bit sad that all serious aircraft developers need to duplicate the
effort.