Partly related:

MSM has a %GS (global save) command that writes globals to text files, in a pretty simple format non-surprisingly called MSM format. The first line contains date and time, and some constants, the second line is the comment entered while running %GS, the following lines contain alternating the global name inclusing all subscripts, and the value. To announce the end of a global, both lines are "*", to announce end of file, both lines are "**". Simple, readable, parseable with nearly no efford. Unless one of the globals happen to contain control characters like CR or LF. Even MSM can't read back those files it wrote just seconds ago. It's a shame.

The companion program %GR (global restore) reads the globals back into the system. And I remember from browsing the sources that there is a second file format named "ANSI format", but unfortunately, I don't remember the details, and I don't have to access to the MSM systems at work from home.

My idea is to search for tools that are written to exchange data with other MUMPS systems. One of the design goals of ANSI MUMPS was to be able to exchange programs and data across the various implementations, so there should be tools. And because MUMPS is so old, my bet is that most exchange formats are simple ASCII files with a line-oriented format and simple delimiters, because that's what all MUMPS systems (and those grey-haired MUMPS coders) are able to handle.

And by the way: Don't expect much error checking or even error handling in old tools. All MUMPS code I've seen (not only or own legacy system, but also the code delivered by Micronetics) is very optimistic regarding the well-formedness and validity of its input. It seems that no MUMPS coder ever mistrusted foreign data or user input. Unexpected input usually leads to crashes or damaged or lost data, get used to it.

Alexander