NAMEds_sdf - Specifications of the SDF file format DESCRIPTIONAn SDF file is a text file, where each "objects" occupies one line. Empty lines are ignored. The structure of a User Object (herein "user") is similar to a CSV file; in SDF the values are separated by a semicolon: USER OBJECT1;Engelhardt;Jan;12.3.45;11 The different fields are: numeration number within class/subgroup, surname (prenom), name, birthdate and class. The numeration seems only to be exported by some systems, we do not need it and ignore it. Birthdate can be any format the date_scramble() routine in data.c accepts. They can be: D.M.Y, M/D/Y, Y-M-D. COMMENTSComments are similar to shell or C: #one line comment The following will have an impact in the SDF reader (it will not work) (src/uds_sdf.c) as of yet: Surname;Name;Birthdate;Class (* comment *) Concluded, a line is a comment if the first char is a hash mark (#), OR the first two chars are "(*" and the last two are "*)". PORTABILITY ISSUESIf an object is terminated by the \x0D\x0A-newline (typically MS-DOS and Windows), the file is considered ASCII, since the program that exports SDF is DOS-based. So, all chars above 127 must be in ASCII, or certain user names get corrupted. If the newline termination sequence is only \x0A, the ANSI set is assumed, that is which is used throughout Linux. BUGSThe newline termination sequence scanner should not rely on \x0D and \x0A but ask what OS we use. Or even, it should somewhere clearly been stated whether it is ASCII or ANSI. NOTESThe SDF format is exported by a (German language) school secretary program called "Kolleg".
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