RFC 3072 (rfc3072) - Page 2 of 26
Structured Data Exchange Format (SDXF)
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 3072 Structured Data Exchange Format March 2001
8.1 Introduction .................................................12
8.2 Basic definitions ............................................13
8.3 Definitions for C++ ..........................................15
8.4 Common Definitions ...........................................16
8.5 Special functions ............................................17
9. 'Support' of UTF-8 ...........................................19
10. Security Considerations .....................................19
11. Some general hints ..........................................20
12. IANA Considerations .........................................20
13. Discussion ..................................................21
13.1 SDXF vs. ASN.1 ..............................................21
13.2 SDXF vs. XML ................................................22
14. Author's Address ............................................24
15. Acknowledgements ............................................24
16. References ..................................................24
17. Full Copyright Statement ....................................26
1. Introduction
The purpose of the Structured Data eXchange Format (SDXF) is to
permit the interchange of an arbitrary structured data block with
different kinds of data (numerical, text, bitstrings). Because data
is normalized to an abstract computer architecture independent
"network format", SDXF is usable as a network interchange data
format.
This data format is not limited to any application, the demand for
this format is that it is usable as a text format for word-
processing, as a picture format, a sound format, for remote procedure
calls with complex parameters, suitable for document formats, for
interchanging business data, etc.
SDXF is self-describing, every program can unpack every SDXF-data
without knowing the meaning of the individual data elements.
Together with the description of the data format a set of functions
will be introduced. With the help of these functions one can create
and access the data elements of SDXF. The idea is that a programmer
should only use these functions instead of maintaining the structure
by himself on the level of bits and bytes. (In the speech of
object-oriented programming these functions are methods of an object
which works as a handle for a given SDXF data block.)
SDXF is not limited to a specific platform, along with a correct
preparation of the SDXF functions the SDXF data can be interchanged
(via network or data carrier) across the boundaries of different
architectures (specified by the character code like ASCII, ANSI or
EBCDIC and the byte order for binary data).
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