Binary format is the preferred format for general use, as it is the most economical in terms of space and speed of access, and ascii is provided to make it easy to modify data files and transfer them between machines with different floating-point formats. The old format is provided only for backward compatibility. The three formats are as follows:

Old:

            What                   Size in Bytes

        title                           80
        title                           80
        date                            8
        time                            8
        numoutputs                      2
        the integer 4                   2
        variable names --
                char[numoutputs][8]     numoutputs * 8
        types of output                 numoutputs * 2
        node index                      numoutputs * 2
        plot title                      numoutputs * 24
        plot title                      numoutputs * 24
        the actual data                 numpoints * numoutputs * 8

Ascii:

        Title: Title Card String
        Date: Date
        [ Plotname: Plot Name
          Flags: complex or real
          No. Variables: numoutputs
          No. Points: numpoints
          Command: nutmeg command
          Variables:    0 varname1 typename1
                        1 varname2 typename2
                        etc...
          Values:
            0   n       n       n       n       ...
            1   n       n       n       n       ...
            And so forth...
        ] repeated one or more times

If one of the flags is complex, the points look like r,i where r and i
are floating point (in %e format). Otherwise they are in %e format.
Only one of real and complex should appear.

The lines are guaranteed to be less than 80 columns wide (unless the
plot title or variable names are very long), so this format is safe
plot title or variable names are very long), so this format is safe
to mail between systems like CMS.

Any number of Command: lines may appear between the No. Points:
and the Variables: lines, and whenever the plot is loaded into
nutmeg they will be executed.

Binary:

        Title Card                (a NULL terminated string)
        Date, Time                (a NULL terminated string)
        [
          Plot title              (a NULL terminated string)
          Plot title              (a NULL terminated string)
          Number of variables   (an int)
          Number of data points (an int)
          flags           (a short)
          variable header struct (repeated numoutputs times)
                variable name     (a NULL terminated string)
                variable type     (an int)
          set of outputs          (repeated numpoints times)
        ] repeated one or more times.

A set of outputs is a vector of doubles of length numoutputs, or
a vector of real-imaginary pairs of doubles if the data is complex.

If a plot title begins with "Title:" nutmeg will be

If a plot title begins with "Title:" nutmeg will be fooled into thinking that this is an ascii format file. Sconvert always requires the type to be specified, however.