{Original post on edstat; reply cross-posted to MINITAB list.
1. *.MTW files are written in the machine language of the computer used
to write them, and are in general not readable on othe computers, even
by MINITAB. Which is why *.MTP files were invented.
("MTW" = "MiniTab Worksheet"; "MTP" = "MiniTab worksheet, Portable".)
2. *.MTP files are written in ASCII characters, and designing a file
reader should not be difficult. But why do you want to? Hard to
imagine a reason that wouldn't be better served by using MINITAB itself.
A free copy good for (I think) 30 days can be downloaded from the
MINITAB web site, www.minitab.com, where you can also find pricing
information. The student version is inexpensive, if price is an object.
If your circumstances require a special file reader (for reasons that
you have not described to us), use the temporary version of MINITAB to
retrieve some of its stored data files (which will be in *.MTW format
for your computer), save them as portable files (which will give you
some *.MTP files to play with), use the WRITe command in MINITAB to
produce a raw data file with which to compare the corresponding *.MTP
file, use the PRINt command in MINITAB to produce a listing of the data
AND the column labels (which are retained in the *.MTP files but not in
the *.DAT files produced by WRITe), and you should be able to deduce
what you need to know.
And if you want more details, send a query to the MINITAB list, which is
read from time to time by MINITAB staff.
On Thu, 18 Mar 2004, Svetlin Grancharov wrote:
> Does somebody have MINITAB MTW or MTP file format specs.
> I have to implement MINITAB MTW or MTP files reader but I do not have
> any documents about these formats.
>
> I will appreciate all clues you can give me.
>
> Best,
>
> Svetlin Grancharov
------------------------------------------------------------
Donald F. Burrill [EMAIL PROTECTED]
56 Sebbins Pond Drive, Bedford, NH 03110 (603) 626-0816
.
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