Newsgroups: comp.misc
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!rochester!kodak!uupsi!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: How many different ASCII textfile formats are there?
Message-ID: <IPMBYJG@xds13.ferranti.com>
Reply-To: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva)
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
References: <1991May27.162515.665@looking.on.ca>
Date: Tue, 28 May 91 14:49:11 GMT

In article <1991May27.162515.665@looking.on.ca> brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) writes:
> I'm making a program that maps textfiles, and I would like to hear of
> any obscure ASCII textfile formats that might exist out there.

DEC uses variable-record files, where a line consists of a character count
followed by that many bytes. There are also DEC file modes where a line
number is included as well. Some older systems (MODCOMP, for example) use
ASCII 80-column card images (blank padded, no terminators).

Luckily, it's unlikely that you'll have to deal with 80-column card images,
and DEC's C runtime library translates variable-record files to stream-linefeed
format.
-- 
Peter da Silva; Ferranti International Controls Corporation; +1 713 274 5180;
Sugar Land, TX  77487-5012;         `-_-' "Have you hugged your wolf, today?"
