Format of the exported messages in Messages.Dat


         This file contains records with a length of 128 bytes.  There
         are 3 types of these records: (1) Packet Header, (2) Message
         Header, and (3) Message Text.  All unused fields in the
         records are normally filled with spaces, although you will
         sometimes find the final Message text record will be filled
         with nulls (#0) after the last text.


                              Packet Header

         Packet Header - is always the first record in the file and
         only occurs once.  It contains only normal ascii text
         (limitted to at most 128 characters) and should always
         start with "Produced by ".  The remaining text normally
         includes a product name and copyright message.


                              Message Header

         A message header immediately preceeds zero or more message
         text records.  Each Message header has the following
         format:

         Start
          Pos  Length              Description
        ------ ------ -----------------------------------------
           1      1   Message status flag (see below)
           2      7   Message number (ascii left justified)
           9      8   Date (MM-DD-YY)
          17      5   Time (HH:MM)
          22     25   To (left justified space filled - uppercase)
                      (Be sure to check the to field to spot
                      configuration type messages)
          47     25   From (left justified space filled - uppercase)
          72     25   Subject (left justified space filled - uppercase)
                      (a subject starting "NE:" should not be
                      echoed into a network)
          97     12   Password (not really used leave blank)
         109      8   Message reference number (ascii left justified)
         117      6   Number of blocks (ascii left justified - number
                      of 128 byte blocks including 1 for the message
                      header)
         123      1   Message activeÿ(á or #225 = Active,
                      â or #226 = Inactive)
         124      1   Conference number (Binary byte)

         Message Status Flag has the following possibilities:

         '~'   Private, unread       ' '  Public, read
         '`'   Private, read         '-'  Public, unread
         '*'   Private, unread
         '+'   Private, read


                             Message Text Records

         The message text records immediately follow the the message
         header.  They contain straight ascii text (lines are
         normally limitted to 72 chars/line although you may see
         longer lines).  Each line is followed by a "ã" or #227
         character to mark the end of the line (in place of the normal
         CR/LF that would exist in a straight text file).  The text
         continues consecutavly and text lines do continue across
         block boundaries.  Some systems may have problems with
         messages longer than 99 lines, although more recently this
         no longer seems to be a limit.  The last block should be
         padded with blanks to fill the block, although on input you
         may find it padded with nulls (#0).