Nice INFO.TXT I think it might be an idea to keep it that way. Maybe have another file for possibly machine use then? Johnny Sampsa Laine wrote: Ok, I get your point but I just thought that if I took my current INFO.TXT file from CHIMPY say: Welcome to CHIMPY::, part of the SAMPSACOM network. Currently active users for email include: SAMPSA DAVIDSON ARI We offer the follow guest logons: ACCOUNT - Use this to request an account on CHIMPY:: B4BBS - Gateway to the SAMPSACOM Bulletin Board System, B4BBS. TETRIS - Awesome VT100 tetris game. Thank you, Sampsa Laine (CHIMPY::SAMPSA) and then added a single line of information meant for the list generator after that, it would a) not visually affect the human reader and b) provide the relevant information for the list generator. Your format works as well, of course, but is more visually significant. Also, whilst this is a almost irrelevant point, parsing a simple field/separator piece of text is a tiny bit more trivial than your format. Sampsa On 19 Oct 2009, at 19:54, Johnny Billquist wrote: Sampsa Laine wrote: Guys, the reason I suggested a one line format was that I thought it would just sit at the end of a human readable file. We could have a second info file that is machine readable. How did you think that one-liner would be created, if not by a human? So why not have the whole file human readable, and human writeable. After all, computers should try to accomodate human peculiarities, and not vice versa. :-) Johnny On 19 Oct 2009, at 16:58, Brian Hechinger wrote: On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 05:45:27PM +0200, Johnny Billquist wrote: Such as (just as an example): ====== HOST: MIM HARDWARE: E11 (PDP-11/74) OS: RSX-11M-PLUS V4.6 LOCATION: UPPSALA, SWEDEN MANAGER: Johnny Billquist EMAIL: bqt at update.uu.se <mailto:bqt at update.uu.se> EMAIL: MIM::BILLQUIST ====== Keep the format simple, and very relaxed. Let software figure out if they can do anything with it or not. Uppercase, lowercase, free flowing text. Just keep the tags standard to start with. Maybe we can have some tags with a more formalized value, if needed, such as a POS: value with LAT/LONG if people want to add that? Hmm, that looks a LOT like an LDIF file. :) -brian -- "Coding in C is like sending a 3 year old to do groceries. You gotta tell them exactly what you want or you'll end up with a cupboard full of pop tarts and pancake mix." -- IRC User (http://www.bash.org/?841435) -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se <mailto:bqt at softjar.se> || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol