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File of unknow origin

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In article <vifkdq$1s77v$1@dont-email.me>,
   druck <news@druck.org.uk> wrote:
> On 27/11/2024 11:36, Dave wrote:
> > However, I found a few very early files, 1984 to 1986 that I can see
> > in StrongED but have no apps to open them and was wondering if any
> > folks here might have any clues from the header data what it might
> > have been.

> Most BBC Micro programs didn't have recognisable file headers, and there 
> wasn't a lot of protection against loading something from a different 
> program (which usually caused a crash).

> Many files were identifiable (at the time) by the load and exec 
> addresses, when I started writing my own Wimp for the BBC after seeing 
> an Archimedes prototype (DEEJsys in !GraphTask), I used this to identify 
> View and ViewSheet and some others, but I couldn't tell you the values 
> after all these years. Work on that stopped when I'd saved up for my 
> A310 and could then run the real Arthur. I still have some of the BBC 
> files on RISC OS but many have ended up ended up loosing the load/exec 
> information when they had file stamps applied allowing them to be backed 
> up to network storage.

> The first place to start is what type of files do you think they are 
> based on the names and where you stored them. Word processor documents, 
> spreadsheets, databases, images? So clue would narrow down the options.

> The second thing to do is to load them in to Zap or StrongEd and look 
> for any recognisable text strings embedded in the binary data. Zap's 
> byte mode is good for finding images, set the column width appropriately 
> and you can often see image appearing in the data.

> The third thing would be to get the BBC Programs you are likely to have 
> had in a BBC B emulator along with the files, and see if anything 
> manages to load them.

> ---druck

Hi druck,
I'd done the things you noted above before posting my question, and I
ascertained from memory (My brain) and from the file displayed in StrongED
that the files in question were from an early database.
I can also see some of data in kind of human readable form with
meaningless to me, bits between the fields. The formatting I guess.
I can't put a sample in here as Pluto won't accept it. 

There's 48 files in that category. Two years worth and 40 years old so I
think I'll forget about them.  :-)

Post 1986 files are all recoverable as they are Interword or Intersheet
files, and 1993 and on, all recoverable as they are Eureka sheet files,
and I still use Eureka now.

Thanks for your thoughts, appreciated.

Dave




-- 

Dave Triffid

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File of unknow origin Dave <dave@triffid.co.uk> - 2024-11-27 11:36 +0000
  Re: File of unknow origin Dave <dave@triffid.co.uk> - 2024-11-27 11:43 +0000
  Re: File of unknow origin druck <news@druck.org.uk> - 2024-11-30 18:10 +0000
    File of unknow origin Dave <dave@triffid.co.uk> - 2024-11-30 21:21 +0000

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