[aprssig] !x! (was: IS-to-RF proposal (rev b))

[Heikki Hannikainen]

On Tue, 3 Jan 2012, 40.174N 75.797W wrote:

> The way i read the spec, I don't think !x! can be at the beginning of
> a packet due to the X1J exception:

I tried to say below: Beginning of comment text (not packet). And then 
rather, end of comment text (in the user-entered comment text, before any 
possible mic-e type codes).

> In my APRS object generation code, I change any existing ! characters
> in the first 40 characters to a space, and I'll pad a packet with
> spaces if needed to ensure that !x! appears as or after the 41st
> character.

That should not be necessary at all - the parsers will quite certainly 
find the position after the first ! and not parse another if there is 
another ! in there.

>> It is implemented for object descriptions (and items and other position
>> formats), but as described above, it needs to go in the beginning of the
>> comment. It might make more sense to have it in the end so it would not
>> affect the readability.

   - Hessu