PQ>> ACK.  :)   
      
    ml> thank you kind sir... now we wait and see if someone has an answer to   
    ml> my query...   
      
    PQ> I can give a partial answer for _one_ file.  It's another custom   
    PQ> module kndly forwarded by Michiel...   
      
    PQ>   866_850  CHS         7,324         8,192  31/10/07   
      
    PQ> It was compiled for use with GoldEd+.  I managed to trace the logic   
    PQ> of its function, once, for a message posted by Alexander Koryagin   
    PQ> from his Thunderbird via JamNNTPd.   
      
   that's one of the files... i'm interested in the internal format of them and   
   if it has changed since 2005... the format i know of seems to be a columnar   
   one where the first column contains the representation of the characters in   
   current character set and the second column contains the representation of   
   those character in the destination character set...   
      
   also, all i've seen are chs files with no more than 256 character   
   representations... to translate UTF-8 to other character sets requires more   
   than 256 slots... some characters will map to the same one in some sets... for   
   example, the single quote and the apostrophy would map to the same character   
   in CP437... then there are the left double quote and the right double quote   
   which would both be mapped to the normal double quote in CP437... there are   
   also several types of spaces in UTF-8 and those would map to the normal space   
   character in CP437 for most purposes... those are just a few examples i can   
   think of right off the top of my head...   
      
   )\/(ark   
      
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    * Origin:  (1:3634/12.42)