Nathan's suggestion of multypling the lrecs by the nrecs for "worst
case" is quicker than what I've always done to estimate this; take
the lrecs, 655, assume all the lines are 65 columns (more if you're
a pessimist) so multiply by 65 to get the number of characters and divide
by 8 (bits per character) so 655*65/8=5322 bytes, close to Nathan's
method.  I figure it's inflated, but if you're getting the stuff via
email you have to allow for the header, and the inflation usually
amply covers it.  My reasoning may be faulty, but it works and the
greater the lrecs the closer it seems to come to being quite accurate,
in my experience.
 
Douglas
       Douglas Winship   Hays County, Texas  [log in to unmask]
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