1Future Work 2=========== 3 4C# implementation of older archive file formats. 5 6Documentation from http://www.corion.net/fileformats/index.html 7 8File format list Release 3.00 Last change 02/04/96 9This compilation is Copyright (c) 1994,2002 Max Maischein 10 11## CONTACT_INFO 12 13If you notice any mistakes or omissions, please let me know! It is only 14with YOUR help that the list can continue to grow. Please send 15all changes to me rather than distributing a modified version of the list. 16 17This file has been authored in the style of the INTERxxy.* file list 18by Ralf Brown, and uses almost the same format. 19 20Please read the file FILEFMTS.1ST before asking me any questions. You may find 21that they have already been addressed. 22 23 Max Maischein 24 25corion@corion.net 26Corion on #coders@IRC 27 28## DISCLAIMER 29 30DISCLAIMER: THIS MATERIAL IS PROVIDED "AS IS". I verify the information 31contained in this list to the best of my ability, but I cannot be held 32responsible for any problems caused by use or misuse of the information, 33especially for those file formats foreign to the PC, like AMIGA or SUN file 34formats. If an information it is marked "guesswork" or undocumented, you 35should check it carefully to make sure your program will not break with 36an unexpected value (and please let me know whether or not it works 37the same way). 38 39Information marked with "???" is known to be incomplete or guesswork. 40 41Some file formats were not released by their creators, others are regarded 42as proprietary, which means that if your programs deal with them, you might 43be looking for trouble. I don't care about this. 44 45## FLAGS 46 47One or more letters may follow the file format ID; they have the following 48meanings: 49 50``` 51 Cx - Charset used : 52 7 - Unix 7-bit characters 53 A - Amiga charset (if there is one) 54 E - EBDIC character format 55 U - Unicode character set 56 W - Windows char set 57 Default is the 8-Bit IBM PC-II Charset. Note that Microsoft 58 introduced codepages which might be relevant with other 59 programs. 60 G - guesswork, incomplete, unreliable etc. 61 M - Motorola byte order 62 Default is Intel byte order 63 O - obsolete, valid only for version noted below 64 X - Synonym topic. See topic named under see also. 65``` 66 67## CATEGORIES 68 69The ninth column of the divider line preceding an entry usually contains a 70classification code for the application that uses those files. 71 72The codes currently in use are: 73``` 74! - User information ( not really a file format ) 75A - Archives (ARC,LZH,ZIP,...) 76a - Animations (CEL, FLI, FLT,...) 77B - Binary files for compilers etc. (OBJ,TPU) 78H - Help file (HLP,NG) 79I - Images, bit maps (GIF,BMP,TIFF,...) 80D - Data support files (CPI,FON,...) 81E - Executable files (EXE,PIF) 82f - Generic file format. RIFF and IFF are generic file formats. 83F - Font files (TTF) 84G - General graphics file 85M - Module music file (MIDI,MOD,S3M,...) 86R - Resource data files (RES) 87S - Sound files (WAV,VOC,ZYX) 88T - Text files (DOC,TXT) 89W - Spreadsheet and related (WKS) 90X - Database files (DBF) 91``` 92 93## FIELDS 94 95After a format description, you will sometimes find other keywords. The 96meanings of these are : 97### EXTENSION: 98 This is the default extension of files of the given type. 99 On DOS systems, most files have a 3 letter extension. 100 On Amiga systems, the files are prefixed with something. 101 The DOS extensions are all uppercase, extensions for other systems 102 are in lower case chars. On other systems, which do not have the con- 103 cept of extensions, as the MAC, this is the file type. 104### OCCURENCES: 105Where you are likely to encounter those files. This specifies 106machines (like PC,AMIGA) or operating systems (like UNIX). 107### PROGRAMS: 108Programs which either create, use or convert files of this format. 109Some might be used for validation or conversion. 110### REFERENCE: 111A reference to a file or an article in a magazine which is mandatory 112or recommended for further understanding of the matter. 113### SEE ALSO: 114A cross reference to a topic which might be interesting as well. 115### VALIDATION: 116Methods to validate that the file you have is not corrupt. Normally 117this is a method to check the theoretical file size against the 118real filesize. Some file formats allow no reliable validation. 119 120## FORMAT 121 122The block oriented files are organized in some other fashion, since the 123order of blocks is at best marginally obligatory. 124 125Each block type starts with the block ID (eg. RIFFblock for a RIFF file) and 126in square brackets the character value of the ID field (eg. [WAVE] for RIFF 127WAVe sound files). The block itself is descripted in the format description, 128that means you will have to look after RIFF or FORM. In the record 129description, the header information is omitted ! 130 131If a record is descripted, the record ends when the next offset is given. 132 133Bitmapped values have a description for each bit. The value left of the 134slash ("/") is for the bit not set (=0), the right sided value applies 135if the bit is set. 136 137A note on the tables section. The tables were added as they were introduced 138into Ralf Browns interrupt list - so not everything was pressed into a table. 139The tables (should) have unique numbers, but they sure are out of order ! 140 141## MACHINES 142 143Machines that use Intel byte ordering 144* PC 145 146Machines that use Motorola byte ordering 147* AMIGA 148* ATARI ST 149* MAC 150* SUN 151 152## HISTORY 153 154History is kept within this file for convenience whilst editing ... 155Date format is european/german, just for my convenience. 156``` 157Date Who What 15814.03.95 MM Introduced tables 159 Last table number=0012 16005.06.95 MM + PTM format 16125.07.95 MM + PIF format 162 + Paradox format description 16311.08.95 MM + MS Compress variants 16418.11.95 MM + ARC enhancements, caveats 165 + HA files 16622.11.95 MM + Parts of the .CRD files 16701.02.96 MM + PNG structure 16802.02.96 MM + More on JPEG 169 + TARGA entry created 170``` 171