title: "descript.ion" file spec?
body: <p>There appears to be a somewhat standard "descript.ion" file in Windows programs universe which provides meta data for all/some of the files in a given directory. </p>
  
  <p>I know there are various programs which write this file (example: NewsBin, UseNet downloader) and read it (Example: "FAR", a file manager mimicking old Norton Commander).</p>
  
  <p>I'm writing my own file indexer, and would like to add the ability to parse and use the info from "descript.ion" files.</p>
  
  <p>The problem I have is that I have not been able to find an actual spec for the file, despine much googling. </p>
  
  <p>I reverse engineered it as best I could, but I'm not certain whether I captured 100% of the possible details, so I figured I'd ask SO.</p>
  
  <p>Here are example lines from the file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>"Rus Song1.mp3" SovietMus 1/2, rus_song@gmail.com, Fri Aug 08 00:46:27 2008
  RusSong2.mp3 SovietMus 2/2, rus_song@gmail.com, Fri Aug 08 01:46:22 2008
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>As it seems the structure is:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>First "token" is a file name.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>If the token starts with any letter but double quote, the token ends at the first <code>space</code> character.</p></li>
  <li><p>If the token starts with the double quote, the end of token is the following double quote </p></li>
  <li><p>Not sure what happens if filename contains a double quote, IIRC it's illegal in Windows filesystems, so escaping the quote may be a moot question)</p></li>
  </ul></li>
  <li><p>Last token (end of line to the very last comma moving backwards) is a timestamp.</p></li>
  <li><p>Second to last token (the very last comma to second-to-last comma moving backwards) is the name of the poster from the Usenet newsgroup. I'm not quite sure what happens in generic format since the only descript.ion files I saw were from NewsBin that is obviously Usenet centric.</p></li>
  <li><p>Everything in between is a description, in NewsBin's case coming from post's subject.</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p><strong>QUESTIONs</strong>:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>Does anyone know of a bit more official "descript.ion" file spec/documentation?
  (or, at elast, have your own knowledge of those files and can verify my spec)</p></li>
  <li><p>Does anyone know of any other programs that read or write this file?</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>