Hypermedia Interchange File Format HIFF

HIFF FORMAT SPECIFICATION HYPERMEDIA INTERCHANGE FILE FORMAT The Hypermedia Interchange File Format(tm) (HIFF(tm)) standard is a specification for comprehensively describing the form and contents of documents created in and by object-oriented, multimedia or hypermedia application programs. Its purpose is to facilitate the transfer of such documents for use in other environments with similar capabilities. This document details the HIFF specification. Revision history Version 1.0 - 17 July, 1990: This is the initial release of the HIFF specification. Who can use HIFF HIFF is an open standard. Anyone may develop and distribute products that write or read documents in the HIFF format. This document is Copyright The HyperMedia Group, 1990. You may copy and redistribute it freely, provided you do so only in its entirety, including this section. The names Hypermedia Interchange File Format and HIFF are trademarks of The HyperMedia Group. You can obtain a royalty-free license to use these trademarks by certifying that your product is fully compatible with published HIFF standards. (See Contacts information below.) The products, algorithms, and techniques developed by The HyperMedia Group and its licensees for writing and reading HIFF files are proprietary and may be used only by those who have purchased or licensed them fromThe HyperMedia Group or its authorized resellers or relicensors. Contacts For information about HIFF, or to make suggestions or proposals regarding future versions of HIFF, please address correspondence to: The HyperMedia Group HIFF Specification 5900 Hollis Street, Suite O Emeryville, CA 94608 AppleLink, Connect, MCI: HMG Overview The fundamental concept of HIFF is to serve as a central "hub" or lingua franca connecting a variety of hypermedia environments. The process of transferring a document from one environment to another is either a two or three step process: Exporting the document from its source environment; Transporting the resulting HIFF file physically or electronically, if necessary, to a computer where the target environment is available; Importing the HIFF data into the target environment. Software that creates a HIFF file from a source document is termed an exporter. Software that creates a new document from a HIFF file in a target environment is termed an importer. The transport step, if required, is outside the scope of HIFF, except that HIFF assumes that no automated modification (such as character set mapping) is applied to the file's data during a transport process, with the sole exception of adapting line delimiters to the conventions of a particular environment. Once a document has been exported to HIFF form, the resulting HIFF file can, in theory, be imported into any number of target environments that have an importer available. Design philosophy The specification for HIFF draws heavily and unabashedl…