On Jun 09, 1996 at 04:02, Frank Malcolm of 3:711/934.24 wrote:

 FM>   It's a valid area line if you find AREA: at the start of any line
 FM>   before you find a line which doesn't start with AREA:, excluding lines
 FM>   which start with 0x01 and maybe blank lines ("lines"
consisting of
 FM>   0x0d or 0x0d0a only).

What about "empty" lines, those containing only whitespace?  What
about lines containing "AREA:" and nothing else?  Since looking
for "AREA:" is something only apps processing packets would
bother doing:

    begin get-area
        set state to 0
        set area to null string
        while state is 0 and more message exists
            get next line
            if line matches RE "^AREA:.*" then
                state = 1
                area = line
            elif line not match RE "^{at}" then
                if line not match RE "^[whitespace chars here]*$" then
                    state = 1
                end if
            end if
        end while
    end get-area

Assuming "{at}" is the 0x01 (^A) character, and "whitespace
chars here" is replaced with all the usual ranges of whitespace
characters.  At the end, "area" is either still null, or contains
the one and only valid "AREA:" line.

    [State 0: Looking for AREA: line]
        |       |
        |       +---)  found normal message line  ---+
        |                                            |
        +---)  found AREA: line  --------------------+
                                                     |
                                [State 1: End of search]

 FM> This fails in only one case which I can think of - a netmail message,
 FM> which therefore doesn't have an area line, but in which the user has
 FM> written AREA: at the start of the very first line in his text.

What about a test - if the "area" after "AREA:" is not
a known valid area name, then assume it's normal message text and therefore
a netmail message.  If it *is* a valid area name, assume it's echomail and
toss accordingly.  As per:

    "AREA:NETCOMM_SUPPORT"                              echomail
    "AREA: This is the way we shoot the cat...  "       netmail
    "AREA:NETCOMM_SUPPORT is the place to be!"          netmail
    "AREA:NETCOMM_SUPPORT   "                           echomail
    "AREA:NETCOMM_SUPPORT   1"                          netmail

(Later...)

Netmail messages don't have "SEEN-BY" lines, do they .. there's
another check that can be performed when trying to determine one way or
another if it's netmail or echomail.

Cheers..


    - dave
    d.begley{at}ieee.org

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