Comments are stored at offset Header.comments_offset from the start of the file. Lines in this section are of the format:
<Field-ID>=<Value>
<Field-ID> can be any string, though several have special meaning and their use is encouraged.
ID Field Example MACH Sequencing machine model MACH=Pharmacia A.L.F. TPSW Trace processing software TPSW=A.L.F. Analysis version Program, Version=1.67 BCSW Base calling software version BCSW=A.L.F. Analysis Program, Version=1.67 DATF Data source format DATF=AM_Version=2.0 DATN Data source name DATN=a10c.alf CONV Format conversion software CONV=makeSCF v2.0
Other fields might include:
ID Field Example OPER Operator OPER=sd STRT Time run started STRT=Aug 05 1991 12:25:01 STOP Time run stopped STOP=Aug 05 1991 16:26:25 PROC Time processed PROC=Aug 05 1991 18:50:13 EDIT Time edited EDIT=Aug 05 1991 19:06:18 NAME Sample name NAME=a21b1.s1 SIGN Average signal strength SIGN=A=56,C=66,G=13,T=18 SPAC Average base spacing SPAC=12.04 SCAL Factor used in scaling traces SCAL=0.5 ACMP Compression annotation COMP=99,6 ASTP Stop annotation STOP=143,12
/* * Type definition for the comments */ typedef char Comments[]; /* Zero terminated list of \n separated entries */