Structure Specifications

The file consists of straight ASCII text, up to 10 lines of text, each line being no more than 45 characters long. It should NOT contain any blank lines, any form of centering or formatting, or any Hi-ASCII or ANSI characters. (i.e. it should ONLY contain alpha & numeric characters).

We recommended that it consist of 5 basic parts:

    1. the proper name of your program
    2. the version number
    3. the "ASP" identifier (optional, for ASP members)
    4. the description separator
    5. the description

All of the above parts should be separated by a single "space".

PROGRAM NAME: To set it apart from the rest, it is recommended that you use ALL CAPS for the program name.

VERSION NUMBER: The version number should be in the form of "v12.34".

ASP IDENTIFIER: If you are an ASP author, we recommend that an "<ASP>" identifying mark be added after the version number, to identify your product as an ASP-authored product.

DESCRIPTION SEPARATOR: To separate the actual description text, insert a simple "-" (dash/minus) character after the ASP identifier (or version number, if not using the ASP identifier), and in front of the description text.

DESCRIPTION: You should attempt to FULLY describe your product, including its most important functions and features. Be sure to include anything which will separate your program from it's competition, and make the BBS user want to download your file.

You should try to use the first 2 lines of the text to give a basic description of your program. This is helpful for sysops who's BBS software limits them to less than 10 lines, 45 characters. Sysops who are limited to using shorter descriptions can simply use the 1st two lines and truncate the rest. Thus, you can basically still supply your own description for BBS software which does not actually utilize the FILE_ID.DIZ feature.

The remaining lines of text can be used to elaborate on the programs features, enhancements from the prior version, information concerning multi-file sets. Please note that older versions of some BBS software can only use 8 lines of text. It is advisable that you create your FILE_ID.DIZ file so that the file can be truncated to various line
lengths without destroying it's usefulness.

Further Information

Getting Started
Why Should You Use FILE_ID.DIZ?
Nuts and Bolts description
An example of a FILE_ID.DIZ
Multiple Disks