DEM and m.dem.extract problem

[Cleavy McKnight]

I am having trouble using m.dem.extract to extract data from a DEM file.  I 
have obtained the updated version of m.dem.extract from /grass/grass4.0/
updates/src/misc, and I have read the information there (about the "C file"), 
but the error I get isn't the one discussed.  I get no numerical information 
about where the program left off, only the message "ERROR: can't find data in 
expected place."

Is there any way to overcome this problem?  Any advice on editing the DEM 
ascii DATA file to overcome the problem?  Thanks!

---Cleavy McKnight
    mcknightc at baylor.edu