Subj : Re: structure templates
To   : borland.public.cpp.borlandcpp
From : "Sebastian Ledesma" <labo@solidyne1.com>
Date : Tue Nov 04 2003 05:44 pm

Rob:

You should use a HexViewer (BC comes with an example, i think it was at
C:\BC5\EXAMPLES\OWL\CLASSES\DOCVIEW).
First you have to recognize if the file has some kind of header or not. Then
detect header size.
After that you must recognize if records are fixed length or variable ones.
If records are variable lenght, problably the content is string. Two types
of strings are the most common: zero terminated (C style)
or lenght defined (Pascal style).
If record are fixed lenght you must detect what info its stored, tipically
'int' or 'long' variables can easily be detected, usually
they are Intel aligned (excpet that the file come from a Mac, where they are
Motorola-aligned ).

Hope this helps

Saludos
Sebastian

PS: If the file is encripted or compressed this could be a very difficult
task.

.