Hello Wilfred!

Wednesday April 22 2020 18:40, you wrote to me:

 > Hi Vincent,

 > On 2020-04-22 16:29:49, you wrote to Paul Hayton:

 VC>> This file has the first 3 characters that are NOT normal text.

 VC>> They are in fact (in hex)  : ef bb bf

 VC>> The first 16 chars are (in Hex and display form) :

 VC>> 00000000  ef bb bf 53 55 42 4a 20  4d 4f 44 2d 55 50 44 0d
 VC>> |...SUBJ MOD-UPD.|

 VC>> The dots give the clue but the hex chars ef bb bf are not A- Z, a
 VC>> - z, 0 - 9 and space etc.

 VC>> Only use a text editor and not a word processor type editor.

 > It's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark#UTF-8

 > Since your on linux it should be easy to filter them out in your
 > scripts:

 > https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/381230/how-can-i-remove-the-b
 > om-from-a-utf-8-file


It is not a script but a program and I cannot examine every character in a
submission for valid chars as the range outside a-x, A-Z, 0-9 is too much to
screen for. Then there is the issue of what to do , more forwards 1 until a
vaild char is presented ?

The correct solution is to use a text editor in Windows, *nix or any other
platform..

If I can do it with my systems ( Linux, Win 10, OSX, IBM ) then I have to
assume every one else can.

Vincent

--- Mageia Linux v7.1 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.13/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707