Preferences:

? All numbers shown in DECIMAL (if not stated otherwise)
? First byte in a file has No: 0000
? Abbreviations : 	hex. = hexadecimal, dec. = decimal
? 					LSB  = least significant byte
? 					MSB  = most significant Byte
? 					NN   = value varies


Structure of a DOS-Expanded MELCO (.EXP) file

Def.:	file holds three types of records:
		
		- stitches
		- jump records
		- color changes

		- file doesn´t have a header

		- maximum stitch length = hex. 7F = 127
		   = 12.7 mm = 1/2“
		  longer stitches will require use of a jump-
		  stitch = needle movement-only records
		  
		- lead in bytes for color changes are: 80 01
		- lead in bytes for  jump records are: 80 02
		  -or-                                 80 04

		- No. of records in a file = filelength/2

		- stitch records are 2 Bytes long
		- color changes and jump records require
		  4 bytes

		- negative numbers are coded as 2-complement
		  i.e. -1 = FF , -2 = FE , -3 = FD a.s.o.

		- coordinates are coded xx , yy


Typical structure of a MELCO file follows :

Byte  00 01 02 03  04 05 06 07  08 09 0A 0B  0C 0D 0E 0F

0000  00 7F 00 7F  7F 00 80 02  7F 00 7F 00  80 01 00 81
0010  00 81 81 00  80 02 81 00  81 00


Explanation:

byte			value		meaning
0000-0001	x+0,y+127	normal stitch
0002-0003				as above
0004-0005	x+127,y+0	normal stitch
0006-0007				lead in jump stitch
0008-0009	x+127,y+0	jump stitch
000A-000B	x+127,y+0	normal stitch, resulting 						
	stitch is x+254,y+0 !
000C-000D				color change
000E-000F	x+0,y-127	y: 2-complement HEX 100-7F=81
0010-0011	x+0,y-127
0012-0013	x-127, y+0	x: 2-complement
0014-0015				lead in jump stitch
0016-0017	x-127,y+0	jump stitch
0018-0019	x-127,y+0

File will stitch out as a two-colored rectangle approx. 25.4 x 38.1 mm ( 1“ x 1 
1/2“)