IFF
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Some other formats are largely or heavily influenced by the IFF standard, but are not compatible. These include, for example: | Some other formats are largely or heavily influenced by the IFF standard, but are not compatible. These include, for example: | ||
*Erlang BEAM compiled modules ([http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/beam_lib.html] and [http://www.erlang.se/~bjorn/beam_file_format.html]): Uses 4 byte alignment instead of 2 byte, and the root chunk has a different ID (<code>FOR1</code> instead of <code>FORM</code>) | *Erlang BEAM compiled modules ([http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/beam_lib.html] and [http://www.erlang.se/~bjorn/beam_file_format.html]): Uses 4 byte alignment instead of 2 byte, and the root chunk has a different ID (<code>FOR1</code> instead of <code>FORM</code>) | ||
| − | *Microsoft's [[RIFF]] and [[RIFX]] formats are based on IFF (RIFF uses little-endian byte order instead, and the root chunk is called <code>RIFF</code> instead of <code>FORM</code>) | + | *Microsoft's [[RIFF]] and [[RIFX]] formats are based on IFF (RIFF uses [[Endianness|little-endian]] byte order instead, and the root chunk is called <code>RIFF</code> instead of <code>FORM</code>) |
*Apple's [[AIFF]] and [[AIFC]] formats are similar to IFF/RIFF as well | *Apple's [[AIFF]] and [[AIFC]] formats are similar to IFF/RIFF as well | ||
Revision as of 01:50, 11 January 2013
Overview
IFF (Interchange File Format) is a file format introduced by Electronic Arts on the Commodore Amiga computer. Its structure is similar to RIFF or PNG, using various self-contained chunks to contain different data.
Although IFF is most commonly used as an image format (using the file extension .iff), it can actually hold a lot of different data types. Some examples of IFF files are
Some other formats are largely or heavily influenced by the IFF standard, but are not compatible. These include, for example:
- Erlang BEAM compiled modules ([1] and [2]): Uses 4 byte alignment instead of 2 byte, and the root chunk has a different ID (
FOR1instead ofFORM) - Microsoft's RIFF and RIFX formats are based on IFF (RIFF uses little-endian byte order instead, and the root chunk is called
RIFFinstead ofFORM) - Apple's AIFF and AIFC formats are similar to IFF/RIFF as well
Resources
- The original EA spec
- IFF chunk registry, defining all known chunks
- ReWiki has a page on IFF, including some details on the rare PBM variant of LBM
