Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!cert.sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: ebrewer@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Ellen Brewer) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Re: VIRUSSUM format (PC) Message-ID: <0007.9105201353.AA06044@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 17 May 91 18:54:32 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 37 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu kuhnle@ait.physik.uni-tuebingen.de (Volkmar Kuhnle) writes: >But over the months al lot of new viruses (and strains of existing ones) >have been uncovered, so that VIRUSSUM.DOC grew in size. Since the >current version is about more than 500 K in length, is is getting >harder and harder to find informations about a special virus in >a file of this size, since I have to use a normal editor. > >I came to the conclusion that an ASCII file is not appropriate for the >distribution of so much data. Therefore I would suggest to supply >future versions as DBF files (dbase format). Database programs which >are able to read DBF files are very common in the PC world. And it >would be much easier to find information about a virus quick in >an DBF file than in an ASCII file. Distribution in ASCII file format is far preferable to any other format. While many people use dbase, it is far from universal. I hesitate to think of the contortions I would have to go through to get information from a DBF file. Nor do I think that an alternative nonuniversal format is an acceptable solution. What you need is a text file browser, since you don't need to edit, just scan for strings and read. This would provide you with a general purpose tool for looking at any text file, not just a way to look at VIRUSSUM.DOC. The software I use is LIST by Vernon D. Buerg. It's free for personal use, with a suggested donation of $15 if you find it of value. It doesn't insist on reading the whole file into memory at once. There's probably a much more recent version than the one I have from 1987, but even that one is very nice, and allows marking blocks of lines and writing them to another file. I'm sure there are other programs to fill this function too--this just happens to be what I use. - -- Ellen Brewer (ebrewer@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu) "Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco."