Format of Version 5 Babyl Files:Warning: This was written Tuesday, 12 April 1983 (by Eugene Ciccarelli),based on looking at a particular Babyl file and recalling variousissues. Therefore it is not guaranteed to be complete, but it is astart, and I will try to point the reader to various Babyl functionsthat will serve to clarify certain format questions. Also note that this file will not contain control-characters,but instead have two-character sequences starting with Uparrow.Unless otherwise stated, an Uparrow <character> is to be read asControl-<character>, e.g. ^L is a Control-L.Versions: First, note that each Babyl file contains in its BABYL OPTIONSsection the version for the Babyl file format. In principle, theformat can be changed in any way as long as we increment the formatversion number; then programs can support both old and new formats. In practice, version 5 is the only format version used, and theprevious versions have been obsolete for so long that Emacs does notsupport them.Overall Babyl File Structure: A Babyl file consists of a BABYL OPTIONS section followed by0 or more message sections. The BABYL OPTIONS section startswith the line "BABYL OPTIONS:". Message sections start withControl-Underscore Control-L Newline. Each section endswith a Control-Underscore. (That is also the first characterof the starter for the next section, if any.) Thus, a threemessage Babyl file looks like:BABYL OPTIONS:...the stuff within the Babyl Options section...^_^L...the stuff within the 1st message section...^_^L...the stuff within the 2nd message section...^_^L...the stuff within the last message section...^_ Babyl is tolerant about some whitespace at the end of thefile -- the file may end with the final ^_ or it may have somewhitespace, e.g. a newline, after it.The BABYL OPTIONS Section: Each Babyl option is specified on one line (thus restrictingstring values these options can currently have). Values areeither numbers or strings. The format is name, colon, and thevalue, with whitespace after the colon ignored, e.g.:Mail: ~/special-inbox Unrecognized options are ignored. Here are those options and the kind of values currently expected: MAIL Filename, the input mail file for this Babyl file. You may also use several file names separated by commas. Version Number. This should always be 5. Labels String, list of labels, separated by commas.Message Sections: A message section contains one message and informationassociated with it. The first line is the "status line", whichcontains a bit (0 or 1 character) saying whether the message hasbeen reformed yet, and a list of the labels attached to thismessage. Certain labels, called basic labels, are built intoBabyl in a fundamental way, and are separated in the status linefor convenience of operation. For example, consider the statusline:1, answered,, zval, bug, The 1 means this message has been reformed. This message islabeled "answered", "zval", and "bug". The first, "answered", isa basic label, and the other two are user labels. The basiclabels come before the double-comma in the line. Each label ispreceded by ", " and followed by ",". (The last basic label isin fact followed by ",,".) If this message had no labels at all,it would look like:1,, Or, if it had two basic labels, "answered" and "deleted", itwould look like:1, answered, deleted,, zval, bug, The & Label Babyl Message knows which are the basic labels.Currently they are: deleted, unseen, recent, and answered. After the status line comes the original header if any.Following that is the EOOH line, which contains exactly thecharacters "*** EOOH ***" (which stands for "end of originalheader"). Note that the original header, if a network formatheader, includes the trailing newline. And finally, following theEOOH line is the visible message, header and text. For example,here is a complete message section, starting with the messagestarter, and ending with the terminator:^_^L1,, wordab, eccmacs,Date: 11 May 1982 21:40-EDTFrom: Eugene C. Ciccarelli <ECC at MIT-AI>Subject: notesTo: ECC at MIT-AI*** EOOH ***Date: Tuesday, 11 May 1982 21:40-EDTFrom: Eugene C. Ciccarelli <ECC>To: ECCRe: notesRemember to pickup check at cashier's office, and deposit itsoon. Pay rent.^_;;; Babyl File BNF:;;; Overall Babyl file structure:Babyl-File ::= Babyl-Options-Section (Message-Section)*;;; Babyl Options section:Babyl-Options-Section ::= "BABYL OPTIONS:" newline (Babyl-Option)* TerminatorBabyl-Option ::= Option-Name ":" Horiz-Whitespace BOptValue newlineBOptValue ::= Number | 1-Line-String;;; Message section:Message-Section ::= Message-Starter Status-Line Orig-Header EOOH-Line Message TerminatorMessage-Starter ::= "^L" newlineStatus-Line ::= Bit-Char "," (Basic-Label)* "," (User-Label)* newlineBasic-Label ::= Space BLabel-Name ","User-Label ::= Space ULabel-Name ","EOOH-Line ::= "*** EOOH ***" newlineMessage ::= Visible-Header Message-Text;;; Utilities:Terminator ::= "^_"Horiz-Whitespace ::= (Space | Tab)*Bit-Char ::= "0" | "1"