How to customize the ascii output format?

[Chi Ding <chi@xxxxxxxxx>]

 Hi everybody
      I'm running a LAS site for mooring data. Right now the ascii data 
output
for one variable is in the format like below
    
            VARIABLE : WIND_SPEED (m/second)
            FILENAME : sb3.nc
            FILEPATH : /home/local/ferret/go/
            BAD FLAG :  -99999.00    
            SUBSET   : 145 points (TIME)
            LONGITUDE: 30W
            LATITUDE : 40N
            Z (meters): 0
coordinates	30W  
28-SEP-2003 00	6.919
28-SEP-2003 01	7.104
28-SEP-2003 02	7.295
28-SEP-2003 03	7.928
28-SEP-2003 04	7.701
28-SEP-2003 05	8.061
28-SEP-2003 06	7.856
28-SEP-2003 07	8.169
28-SEP-2003 08	8.586
28-SEP-2003 09	8.416
28-SEP-2003 10	9.327
28-SEP-2003 11	8.478
28-SEP-2003 12	9.028
28-SEP-2003 13	8.879
28-SEP-2003 14	9.013

  I need to modify the output format 
  1) customize the header, get rid of the Z(meters) information
  2) add some customized words into the header
  3) list the dat using the following format, ideally tab seperated
     
     Day.Hour(local)   Year_Day   Wind_Speed(m/sec)   Wind_Direction(deg)
     9/25/03 0:00       131.23    4.2	               32
     9/25/03 1:00       131.27    3.8                 30

 After reading Ferret.pl, I found the output ascii data is produced by std_list.jnl 
file, using the statements 
  
   REPEAT/l=($lmin):($lmax):`lchunk` REPEAT/k=($kmin):($kmax):`kchunk` 
REPEAT/j=($jmin):($jmax):`jchunk` 
(list/append/file($format)/j=`j`:`jtop`/k=`k`:`ktop`/l=`l`:`ltop` ($theVar); CANC MEM/ALL)

  Now my question is how to customize the ascii output data? I have two options to choose.
  1) use Ferret to generate the output I need? Is it possible? Or is it difficult?
  2) use the  Ferret script and the same  ascii output. However, modify Ferret.pl, use perl 
to work on the ferret ascii output data and generate the output I want?
  Anybody can help me? Any information will be appreciated.
  Thanks a lot, Ding