From: bqt@softjar.se

On 2025-09-05 01:49, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> On Thu, 4 Sep 2025 17:22:35 -0400, John Reagan wrote:
>
>> Don't consider the length/padding to be part of the file.  It is simply
>> part of the container that is holding the bytes.
>
> Every byte in the file contents is part of the contents of the file.

No.

>> VARCR, STMLF, etc. each are different containers but would hold the same
>> bytes.  You wouldn't want the RMS header would you?  Of course not.
>
> There is no “RMS header” in variable-length record formats.

Yes there is. The length information is the "RMS header". And I don't
know what I'd call the padding, but it's also clearly not part of the
data of the file.

And the same data, written either to a VARCR or a STMLF file, should
read back out the same data. What you are suggesting would mean that the
same data written, would result in different data being read back out,
which would be absolutely madness.

   Johnny

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