home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Collection of Tools & Utilities
/
Collection of Tools and Utilities.iso
/
olrdrs
/
bwdev201.zip
/
BWSTRUCT.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-01-18
|
52KB
|
1,044 lines
The Blue Wave Offline Mail System
Mail Packet File Structures
Revision Level 2
Copyright 1990-1994 by Cutting Edge Computing
All Rights Reserved
Created by George Hatchew
Documentation by Martin Pollard and George Hatchew
Revision 2.01 - January 18, 1994
===================
TABLE OF CONTENTS
===================
Introduction ...................................................... 3
Filename Conventions .............................................. 3
Files in Blue Wave Packets ........................................ 4
Byte Ordering in File Structures .................................. 6
Using the File Structures ......................................... 6
Unused and Reserved Structure Fields .............................. 7
The *.INF File (INF_HEADER & INF_AREA_INFO) ....................... 8
The *.MIX File (MIX_REC) .......................................... 10
The *.FTI File (FTI_REC) .......................................... 11
The *.DAT File .................................................... 12
The *.XTI File (XTI_REC) .......................................... 12
The *.UPL File (UPL_HEADER & UPL_REC) ............................. 12
The *.UPI (UPI_REC) and *.NET (NET_REC) Files ..................... 14
The *.REQ File (REQ_REC) .......................................... 14
The *.PDQ File (PDQ_HEADER & PDQ_REC) ............................. 14
Appendix A - How to Create a Blue Wave Mail Packet ................ 15
Appendix B - How to Create a Blue Wave Reply Packet ............... 16
Appendix C - The Blue Wave Structures and Turbo Pascal ............ 16
Appendix D - Serial Numbers in Mail and Reply Packets ............. 18
============================
COPYRIGHT AND RESTRICTIONS
============================
The Blue Wave packet structures were created by George Hatchew, and
are the copyrighted property of Cutting Edge Computing. Permission is
granted for third parties to use these structures in their own pro-
grams, without any royalties or licenses required. Cutting Edge
Computing reserves the right to make any changes to these structures,
at any time. As such, third parties are requested not to make any
unauthorized changes to these structures, as Cutting Edge Computing is
not bound to follow these changes. Any proposed changes should be
brought to the attention of Cutting Edge Computing, where they may be
included in future revisions of the structures.
Authors that use these structures are allowed to claim that their
programs are "Blue Wave compatible". However, to avoid confusion and
complications, authors are NOT allowed to use "Blue Wave" as any part
of the name of their programs (as "Blue Wave" is a product line from,
as well as a trademark of, Cutting Edge Computing).
===================
TRADEMARK NOTICES
===================
The following are products, trademarks, or registered trademarks of
the following individuals and/or companies:
ARC - System Enhancement Associates
Blue Wave - George Hatchew and Cutting Edge Computing
FidoNet - Tom Jennings and Fido Software
MegaReader - Kip Compton
MS-DOS - Microsoft Corp.
PKZIP - PKWARE Inc.
QWK - Mark "Sparky" Herring
Silver Xpress - Hector Santos and Santronics Software
Turbo Pascal, Borland Pascal - Borland International
XRS - Michael Y. Ratledge
Any omissions from this list are purely unintentional.
Blue Wave Mail Packet File Structures - Revision Level 2
INTRODUCTION
============
The world of offline mail has virtually exploded since the late 1980s,
due mostly to the ever-increasing interest in electronic mail networks
(such as FidoNet and the Internet). As the flow of mail increased,
more and more users became aware of the benefits of downloading mail,
reading it offline, and uploading replies at a later date, thus maxi-
mizing efficiency and minimizing the time spent online.
Several competing formats for storage of offline mail have come into
existence during this period, with the minimalist QWK format emerging
as the dominant one due to its open specifications. (The MegaReader,
Silver Xpress, and XRS, formats also exist, but never really achieved
"critical mass" due to the proprietary nature of their file formats.)
QWK enjoys widespread popularity, but its technical limitations make
it less than suitable for handling the wide variety of electronic mail
that currently exists (and which will appear in the coming years).
The Blue Wave format was designed as a superior method of providing
offline mail capabilities, particularly for networks based on the
FidoNet standard (which means full support for FidoNet-style private
mail, or NetMail). Its design is simple enough that virtually any
programmer can create a Blue Wave-compatible product in a short amount
of time, yet flexible enough to provide plenty of room for future
needs (such as FAX capabilities). It also has basic support for non-
FidoNet style mail, such as that required by Internet mail, Usenet
newsgroups, and QWK-based network mail.
NOTE THAT THIS IS A REFERENCE DOCUMENT, NOT A PROGRAMMING TUTORIAL. A
tutorial on programming is beyond the scope of this document. Thus,
we do not recommend the use of these structures by the novice.
FILENAME CONVENTIONS
====================
The Blue Wave format was originally designed for the Blue Wave series
of offline mail readers and doors running on an Intel-compatible PC
using MS-DOS (or a DOS-compatible operating system). This means that
filenames are limited to the DOS standard "8.3" format (up to eight
characters, optionally followed by a period and a one to three charac-
ter extension, with no distinction made between upper and lower case
letters). For maximum compatibility across different platforms,
programs utilizing the Blue Wave format should limit filenames to the
DOS format as well.
Additionally, DOS allows for some non-alphanumeric characters to be
used in filenames. These characters, while suitable for DOS, may
cause problems on non-DOS platforms. Therefore, it would be wise to
restrict the allowable characters in filenames to uppercase letters
("A" to "Z") and digits ("0" to "9").
- Page 3 -
Blue Wave Mail Packet File Structures - Revision Level 2
FILES IN BLUE WAVE PACKETS
==========================
There are two main components to the Blue Wave system: mail packets,
which consist of messages obtained from the host system (such as a
BBS), and reply packets, which consist of messages written by the user
via an offline mail reader (such as the reader that bears its name,
the Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader). Each type of packet contains its
own set of unique files.
Blue Wave mail and reply packet filenames are based around what is
called a "packet ID". The packet ID is a one to eight character
string that uniquely identifies a particular host system, and is used