"read.npl" <-
function(fname="ch12ed.txt",maxpoints=1000,colnum=4, outfile="npl.txt"){
        tx <- readLines(fname, n=-1)
        n1 <- seq(along=tx)
        len <- length(tx)
        mn <- sapply(tx, function(x)
                 {as.numeric(length(grep("analyzing pedigree F", x)))})
        idrows <- n1[mn>0]
        firstrows <- idrows+3
        z <- sapply(tx[firstrows],function(x)substring(x,1,7)=="   0.00")
        idrows <- idrows[z]
        firstrows <- firstrows[z]
        tf <- min((firstrows[1]:(firstrows[1]+maxpoints))
                  [tx[firstrows[1]:(firstrows[1]+maxpoints)]==""])
        nrows <- tf-firstrows[1]
        m <- as.numeric(sapply(tx[idrows],
                               function(x)regexpr("F[A-Z][0-9][0-9][0-9]",x)))
        nam <- sapply(strsplit(tx[idrows],"F"),function(x)x[2])
        nam <- sapply(strsplit(nam,"\\."),function(x)x[1])
        nam <- paste("F",nam,sep="")
        seqrows <- unlist(lapply(firstrows,function(x)x:(x+nrows-1)))
        tx <- tx[seqrows]
        write.table(tx,quote=F,file="xlods.txt")
        xy <- read.table("xlods.txt",header=F,skip=1)
        npl <- t(matrix(xy[,colnum],nrow=nrows))
        pos <- t(matrix(xy[,2],nrow=nrows))
        poscheck <- apply(pos,2,function(x)any(x!=x[1]))
        if(any(poscheck))stop("Positions are not identical across families")
        positions <- pos[1,]
        dimnames(npl) <- list(nam,paste(positions))
        write.table(npl, file=outfile)
        invisible(npl)
    }