Instruction making rant

[Daniel R]

If anyone has any good or better ideas, sure post them 

I have posted my suggested syntax in this topic. It is not ideal either as honestly is requires more boilerplate i.e. compared to the yours (and also I have not received any other comments but I'm sure there'll be other issues). But it addresses several issues I see here.

They shouldn't be there in the first place anyway, but it can be gracefully handled by simply not showing them in PLI.

In my opinion that is not a good behaviors for an interface. If something should not be used, it should not be allowed by the compiler. And moreover, the syntax should not encourage you to write something which should not be used. Here you suggest that "// parts" are most likely Ldraw type 1 lines, that is, references. That allows to have different sets of references in different sections (which, again, I think should be prohibited by the compiler or LDCad). That's why I suggest a "MOVE GROUP" meta which is not a type 1 line and inherently does not allow to change parts used.

(you're adding a door to a model, then attach pieces to the door in the next step and only then close the door in the third step)

That is the case I was thinking about, yes. However rare, I think it should be supported.

I think the most logical way to solve that with the idea I posted above is by simply using multiple buffer definitions.

That is fine but bloats the code, requiring unnecessary many intermediate buffers in case there are many steps in between. Also making it very hard for manual editing.
Use of groups solves this, as it is allowed to add parts to existing group in many places (on different steps).

Or, maybe by extending the buffer definition in some way, maybe something like this

That is essentially what I propose but again, without new type 1 lines with new positions, but with new command which only allows to set new position.

I personally like the first one more, because it leaves less room for error.

I am not sure how



I would also love to hear any suggestions and critics