[comp.os.msdos.misc] Just a little bit of WP 5.1 file format

dfoster@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Derek R. Foster) (04/01/91)

I have a simple question about WordPerfect file formats. Before somebody
tells me "buy a $30 book" or "buy the WP toolkit for $75", I should
probably state that I know that books exist with WordPerfect file formats
in them -- Nobody I know has one, however, and I can't afford to buy one.
(in fact, my efforts to even FIND one have so far been in vain.) Besides,
I am a poor college student who does not have $30 to spare just to answer
the following question:

How do I access the "long document name" field of the header of a WordPerfect
document? All I need to do is read it. Could someone who possesses the file
format give me a simple algorithm for finding the starting offset of this
info, and for determining the length of it? Something like "read the word at
file offset xxx and skip forward that many bytes from offset yyy. The
next zzz bytes are the file comment"? I would be Eternally Grateful. I have
in mind a utility that would scan a set of files in a WP directory and
create from the "long document name" fields a set of file comments suitable
for use with Norton's FI, 4DOS, disk/file cataloguing programs, etc.

Thanks!

Derek Riippa Foster