INFO.TXT, was Re: [HECnet] UPDATE: HECNET.HLP file for VMS systems

[sampsa at mac.com]

On 31 Dec 2012, at 17:06, "Brian Schenkenberger, VAXman-" <system at TMESIS.COM> wrote:

If there is some "parser" handling these INFO files, I'd suspect that it
is manifest in the parser or where the parsing is performed.   If it were
me, I'd use the VMS finite state parser to handle the parsing on VMS.   A
simple VAR format would appease VMS and RSX and, I'd wager, all other DEC
OSs.


The info files are text because they are easy to create (free form text +
parseable bit) and are used by web services like http://rhesus.sampsa.com/cgi-bin/hecnetinfo/hecnetinfo.com

My "parser" (20-30 lines of Python) downloads the data for the node, strips out
everything but the free form text and creates a HELP section out of it.

sampsa