Instruction making rant

[N. W. Perry]

Buffer exchange is a pain, no way to soften that. Surely if you are depending on it heavily like in technic model instructions.
It originated from MLCad and was implemented later in LPub(3D) and LDCad.
To work with it and understand fully, please refer to one of the many tutorials that are out there, like mine:
https://sites.google.com/view/workingwit...r-exchange

There's something I wonder about in that tutorial—you mention a couple of times that the BUFEXCH_STORE command is used to "store" the hovering parts in the buffer. But isn't it true that what's actually being stored is the view up until that point—in other words, everything before you start to add hovering parts?


So the sequence goes like this:

• You build your model up to a certain point, then "store" that building state in the buffer, like a save point in a video game.
  
• You add some new parts that you plan to change in some way later—move them, or not display them at all, etc. These are simply added to the building state you had so far.
  
• You then "retrieve" the building state that you stored—essentially, you "revert" to the save point (losing all changes made since then).
  
• You continue building from your saved state, first by adding those same new parts in their changed condition (moved, or just not shown, etc.).
  

Is that an accurate understanding of the process?

I see why it makes sense, though, to think of the hovering parts themselves—everything between the STORE and RETRIEVE commands, essentially—as being the "buffer". But maybe there are other use cases where it helps to go by the "save" and "revert" concept instead.