Re: (Fwd) Re: XML and GNOME community (IFF?)

[Michael Zucchi <zucchi zedzone box net au>]

It just doesn't seem like much new.  IFF (Interchange File Format -
originally designed by Electronic Arts for Deluxe Paint) had a
structured, well defined interchange format defined in 1985.  It had
advantages in that it was very easy to create and parse quickly too.
And the parsers are very easy to write.

(it is based on a binary format, which has structure very well defined
within it, and forms exist for all manner of data types, from text to
pictures to sounds to word processor formats, etc).  Forms can be
imbedded in other forms, or concatenated together, etc etc.

e.g. for a clipboard, you might 'cut' some text, it would be possible
to encode the text as plain text, unicode (for instance), a picture
(?), structured text - all in one file, and 'paste' it to the
clipboard, and any application grabbing it could 'decode' their
desired format transparently.

Pity it wasn't widely used in the mainstream ... so we're stuck with
re-inventing the wheel again (in some slightly more versatile yet
considerably more complex fashion).

*sigh*, oh well.

-- 
     ///   `... thinking is an exercise to which all too few brains
    ///     are accustomed.' - First Lensman, E.E. `Doc' Smith
\\\///  
 \\\/   Michael Zucchi, B.E.                 zucchi@zedzone.box.net.au