Example of possible Psuedo-Code for Table A Validation

read_table_A.pl

    #This would be called inside each definition, this is using SCENE_BUILD as an example:
    validate_def(['name,1','name,1', 'boolean,0','boolean,0','insteon_on_level,0','insteon_ramp_rate,0'], \@item_info);

#Global validation routine:
sub validate_def {
	my ($req_array, $passed_values);
	my $i = 0;
	for my $req_line (@{$req_array}){
	    my ($type, $req) = split(',',$req_line);
	    if ($type eq 'boolean'){
	        ::print_log("Error item $i in definition, should be 0 or 1") unless ($$passed_values[$i] =~ /^(0|1)$/);
	    }
	    elsif ($type eq 'name'){
	        ::print_log("Error item $i in definition, can only use characters A-z and _") unless ($$passed_values[$i] =~ /^[\w_]*$/);
	    }
	    elsif ($type eq 'insteon_on_level'){
	        ...
	    }
	    elsif ($type eq 'insteon_ramp_rate'){
	        ...
	    }
	    if ($req and ($$passed_values[$i] eq '')){
	        ::print_log("Error, item $1 is required in the definition");
	    }
	    $i++;
	}
}

Another thing that would be nice, although may not fit in this design, is a unified method for returning the descriptions of each of the fields. While I don't think many people use is, the web/bin/items.pl page does offer a user interface for editing items. But in order to have the definitions and proper descriptions appear on that page, you need to edit the web/bin/items.pl code. I have been, and I think many others as well, completely overlooking the additions to that file. It would be much better for developers if there was only one place to edit these things.