Thank you for you assistance and patients Joe

// This is a bit over my head as I was originally a C programmer and
// I am still way behind on Visual C++
// It's gonna take me a while to get my head into understanding this.

// how do I get buffer(read CIP file) into this parse routine?
// how do I retrieve the parameters?

char * ParseAttributes(char * start, std::map<CStringA, CStringA>
attributes)
{
   while(true)
   { /* scan attributes */
     if(strncmp(start, CIP3PreviewImage, strlen(CIP3PreviewImage)) == 0)
     { /* at image */
       start += strlen(CIP3PreviewImage);
       while(*start != '\n')
         start++;
       return start;
     } /* at image */
     while(*start != '/')
     { /* scan to next dictionary entry */
       start++;
     } /* scan to next dictionary entry */
     // /Name value def
     // ^
     // | We are here
     char * begin = ++start;
     while(*start != ' ')
     { /* scan past keyword */
       start++;
     } /* scan past keyword */
     // /Name value def
     // ^ ^
     // | |
     // begin start
     CStringA name(begin, start-begin));
     while(isspace(*start)) // skip past whitespace
       start++;
     char * def = strstr(start, "def");
     if(def == NULL)
     { /* def not found */
       //... deal with ill-formed expression
       return NULL; // or value of your choice, or throw exception
     } /* def not found */
     def--;
     while(isspace(*def))
       --def;
     CStringA val(start, def-start + 1);
     attributes.insert(std::pair(name, val));
     while(*def != '\n') // now skip to the EOL
       def++;
     start = ++def;
   } /* scan attributes */
} // ParseAttibutes