[PLUG] Unknown Document File Types

[Richard C. Steffens]

Ron Braithwaite wrote:
> On Aug 25, 2005, at 9:40 AM, Richard C. Steffens wrote:
> 
>> The ones identified as text files do open as text files with Kate,  
>> but the text is obviously not correct. An example is:
>>
>> W�walke�alon�tree-line�ban� o�th�Ca�Rive�a�sunset
> 
> 
> That very much reminds me of the old Word Star format, where the high  
> order bit of the last character of each word was set, thereby  allowing 
> a very rudimentary justification algorithm to just stuff in  spaces to 
> fill out the line. I /suspect/ that anything capable of  reading & 
> translating Word Star files could handle this.

That makes sense. I think some of these files date to the 1980's. I used 
to have a copy of Word Star around. I'll have to look and see if it's 
still in the bottom of a drawer, although it's probably on 5-1/4" 
diskettes, and I don't think the last 5-1/4" drive I have is working, 
anymore.

Renegade Penguin wrote:
 > One of the best ways I've found is to use MS Word on Windows - it will
 > often retrieve more file types than konq, OO, WP, etc.  I'd try OO
 > first though.
 >

I tried OO. It didn't do any better than Kate. At your recommendation, I 
also tried Word 97, but with the same results. My wife has ConvertPlus, 
which is from Word Perfect 5.1 days. It doesn't recognize the file 
either, and that one I would have expected to be able to see a Word Star 
file.

Jason R. Martin wrote:
 > On 8/25/05, Richard C. Steffens <rsteff at comcast.net> wrote:

 > Sometimes the "file" command is sufficient to figure it out, have you
 > tried that?

I didn't know about that program! Thanks for recommending it. 
Unfortunately, it reports that each of those files is a "data" file, so 
it's not all that helpful.

Thanks to all for all the ideas. Looks like Word Star is the best 
possibility at this time. I guess I'll go looking for a Word Star reader 
of some sort.

-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens
http://home.comcast.net/~rsteff/

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