[pups] extract old archive format?

[norman@oclsc.org (Norman Wilson)]

Bob Eager:

  The 'ar' format of that vintage is trivial, and documentation easily
  found. I wrote programs to read it back in 1976!

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That's nothing.  Either Ken or Dennis wrote such a program
years before that!

Warren even has a binary somewhere to prove it!

Seriously, it's a binary format, so I don't know that
it would be easy to process in awk.  (At least not in
awk-classic; stuff that works only in ghootandwaveawk
is not all that interesting to me.)  But the format is
simple, and any language new or old that can handle
binary data without tears should do.

If I didn't have an overfull plate already (and a
visit to the Auto-Electrocution Consultant tomorrow,
and one to the Canal Rooting Clinic Monday--proving
that one should follow Father's advice and Stay Away
From The Canal, Neddie) it would be interesting to
collect the different specifications for ar headers
over the years, and write a small suite of programs
to read them.  Perhaps in Python, just to be difficult.
(Why isn't there a language called Goon, Warren?)

Norman Wilson
Toronto ON
(owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww)