[MR] Invisible Madman (was OA for O&A)

[Siegfried Sebastian Faust]

>Can you heralds in the house cook up some valid blazons
>that  a hypothetical (or actual, if you have one) blazon program
>would misunderstand?

Not a herald, but someone who once thought about making such a program ... 
and I'll mention the things that started frying my brain and made me wanna 
quit :)

1) Inferred placement.  If it often the case that a charge will not be 
placed in the center of the shield, but it won't be 'mentioned'.  Because 
it is obvious that the charge can't be in the middle to the 'eye'.

Such as:
Per bend sinister azure and argent, a crossbow argent.

That is a valid blazon, and when emblazoned, the crossbow would be drawn in 
the upper left corner, so that it doesn't overlap the other argent.  This 
is therefore identical to the blazon:
Per bend sinister azure and argent, in dexter chief a crossbow argent.

Which is just stating the movement, instead of having it 'happen'.

So any program would have to deal with all these various 'assumptions' like 
that (and some are less cut and dry than that one).

2) The previously mentioned '50 ways to say the same thing'.

3) Not something that a 'Blazon to Emblazon' program would need to worry 
about, but a 'drawing program' would.  Are all the special case rules, 
which are numerous.  Such as 'slot machine', 'a field division of more than 
4 must have sufficiently different colors', 'heralds count: 1, 2, 3, many', 
'black is a metal if you provide documentation to your period for it', etc.

4) charges that 'change' based upon other charges.  Best example I can 
think of right now (and I am sure there are more) is a Ford.  A ford is an 
even number of wavy lines at the bottom of a device, alternating argent and 
azure with a minimum number of 4.  HOWEVER, which color is on top (white or 
blue) depends upon the background color.  If the background is a metal, 
blue starts, and vice versa.

5) Modifications to charges.  'Maintaining in it's beak', 'upon an 
hourglass', etc.  All the 'very specific' placements that can be done.

And more ... but that's a start ...

Siegfried

______________________________________________________________________
Lord Siegfried Sebastian Faust               Barony of Highland Foorde
Baronial Web Minister          http://highland-foorde.atlantia.sca.org