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The syntax page gives the standard. A file that breaks it is invalid, and other scanners may refuse it. scan-chart reads such a file more widely: where a line or section has one probable meaning, scan-chart reads that meaning and reports an issue. When you save an edited song, scan-chart writes what it read in the standard form.

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Lines read as they probably mean

The nonstandardChartLine issue names the first such line in each section.

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Sections

  • No resolution: a file with no [Song] section, or no Resolution in it, is read with a resolution of 192, as every scanner reads it. Saving adds Resolution = 192, and the [Song] section when there’s none.
  • Order: [Song] and [SyncTrack] are read wherever they are. Saving puts them first, in that order.
  • A repeated name: the first section with the name is read. Saving removes the others.
The nonstandardChartSections issue says which of these a file has.

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Repeated markers

Two tempo markers, or two time signatures, at one tick in [SyncTrack] are read as games read them: the later one counts. Saving removes the earlier one.

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Lines read as written

These forms don’t mean to games what they probably meant to the charter. scan-chart reads them as games do, and saving leaves them as written, for you to fix:
  • A decimal comma, such as Offset = 0,1, is read as no value.
  • A Resolution that isn’t a whole number, such as Resolution = 480.5, is read by its leading digits, as 480.
  • An [Events] text with no closing quotation mark, such as 1 = E "phrase_start, isn’t read. A lyric is the exception: E "lyric Saa is read as the lyric Saa, as YARG reads it. Clone Hero reads every such text as an empty event, a lyric included.
The nonstandardChartLine issue names them too.

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Lines that can’t be read

A line with no probable meaning is ignored, and saving an edited song removes it:
  • two ticks, such as 73344 85632 = E "section Bridge";
  • a negative number, such as 52952 = S 2 -1649;
  • more values than the event takes, such as 0 = N 1 0 0;
  • text before a section’s } on its line, such as what’s left of a cut-off 419040};
  • a [Song] number that isn’t a number, such as PreviewStart = soon, and a [Song] line without =.
The unreadableChartLine issue names the first in each section, so you can fix it before saving.

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Saving

Saving an edited song never changes a TrackHash or the SongHash your edits didn’t. These rewrites can’t: the hashes come from what scan-chart reads, and the rewrites write exactly that. So saving always applies them, in every section.