Index: /trunk/FACT++/src/Description.cc
===================================================================
--- /trunk/FACT++/src/Description.cc	(revision 10297)
+++ /trunk/FACT++/src/Description.cc	(revision 10297)
@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+// **************************************************************************
+/** @struct Description
+
+@brief A struct which stores a name, a unit and a comment
+
+To have proper descriptions of commands and services in the network
+(and later proper informations in the FITS files) this struct provides
+a simple storage for a name, a unit and a comment.
+
+Assume you want to write a descriptive string for a command with three arguments.
+It could look like this:
+
+   COMMAND=Description|int[addr]:Address range (from - to)|val[byte]:Value to be set
+
+Description is a general description of the command or service itself,
+int and val are the names of the arguments (e.g. names of FITS columns),
+addr and byte have the meaning of a unit (e.g. unit of FITS column)
+and the text after the colon is a description of the arguments
+(e.g. comment of a FITS column). The description must not contain a
+line-break character \n.
+
+Such a string can then be converted with SplitDescription into a vector
+of Description objects, each containing the name, the unit and a
+comment indivdually. The first object will contain COMMAND as name and
+Description as comment. The unit will remain empty.
+
+You can omit either the name, the unit or the comment or any combination of them.
+The descriptions of the individual format strings are separated by a vertical line.
+
+*/
+// **************************************************************************
+#include "Description.h"
+
+#include <sstream>
+
+using namespace std;
+
+// --------------------------------------------------------------------------
+//
+//! This function removed whitshapces on both sides of a string.
+//!
+//! @param s
+//!     string to be cleaned
+//!
+//! @returns
+//!     string cleaned from whitespaces
+//
+string Description::Trim(string s)
+{
+    // Trim Both leading and trailing spaces
+    const size_t start = s.find_first_not_of(' '); // Find the first character position after excluding leading blank spaces
+    const size_t end   = s.find_last_not_of(' ');  // Find the first character position from reverse af
+
+    // if all spaces or empty return an empty string
+    if (string::npos==start || string::npos==end)
+        return string();
+
+    return s.substr(start, end-start+1);
+}
+
+// --------------------------------------------------------------------------
+//
+//! This functio0n breaks down a descriptive string into its components.
+//! For details see class reference.
+//!
+//! @param buffer
+//!     string which should be broekn into pieces
+//!
+//! @returns
+//!     A vector<Description> containing all the descriptions found.
+//!     The first entry contains the discription name and comment.
+//
+vector<Description> Description::SplitDescription(const string &buffer)
+{
+    const size_t p0 = buffer.find_first_of('=');
+
+    const string svc  = buffer.substr(0, p0);
+    const string desc = buffer.substr(p0+1);
+
+    const size_t p = desc.find_first_of('|');
+
+    // Extract a general description
+    const string d = Description::Trim(desc.substr(0, p));
+
+    vector<Description> vec;
+    vec.push_back(Description(svc, "", d));
+
+    if (p==string::npos)
+        return vec;
+
+    string buf;
+    stringstream stream(desc.substr(p+1));
+    while (getline(stream, buf, '|'))
+    {
+        if (buf.empty())
+            continue;
+
+        const size_t p1 = buf.find_first_of(':');
+
+        const string comment = p1==string::npos ? "" : buf.substr(p1+1);
+        if (p1!=string::npos)
+            buf.erase(p1);
+
+        const size_t p2 = buf.find_last_of('[');
+        const size_t p3 = buf.find_last_of(']');
+
+        const bool hasunit = p2<p3 && p2!=string::npos;
+
+        const string unit = hasunit ? buf.substr(p2+1, p3-p2-1) : "";
+        const string name = hasunit ? buf.substr(0, p2) : buf;
+
+        vec.push_back(Description(name, unit, comment));
+    }
+
+    return vec;
+}
Index: /trunk/FACT++/src/Description.h
===================================================================
--- /trunk/FACT++/src/Description.h	(revision 10297)
+++ /trunk/FACT++/src/Description.h	(revision 10297)
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#ifndef FACT_Description
+#define FACT_Description
+
+#include <string>
+#include <vector>
+
+struct Description
+{
+    std::string name;
+    std::string unit;
+    std::string comment;
+
+    static std::string Trim(std::string s);
+    static std::vector<Description> SplitDescription(const std::string &buffer);
+
+    Description(const std::string &n, const std::string &u, const std::string &c)
+        : name(Trim(n)), unit(Trim(u)), comment(Trim(c)) { }
+};
+
+#endif