Metaformats
From Just Solve the File Format Problem
A metaformat (or meta format) is a generic low-level file format used as a basis for defining high-level file formats.
Whether a format is a metaformat is ultimately a judgment call. There are no definitive answers to questions like: What is the difference between a container format and a metaformat? Or a serialization format and a metaformat? Is CSV a metaformat, or is it a database or a spreadsheet format? Should TIFF and PDF be considered to be metaformats, given all the subformats of them that have been defined?
Another reasonable, but different, definition of metaformat is "a format that describes other formats".
Formats that implement other formats
- Binary XML
- Boxes/atoms format
- EBML
- IFF
- ISO Base Media File Format
- JSON
- Microsoft Compound File
- ODL (NASA Object Description Language)
- RIFF
- RIFX
- SGML
- Softdisk Publishing UDF files
- XCDL (part of XCL project)
- XML
- ZIP
Formats that describe other formats
- BFD (Binary Format Description)
- CSV Dialect Description Format (describes details of features differing between CSV varieties)
- CSV Schema (describes format of CSV file)
- Citation Style Language (describes bibliographic citation formats)
- DFDL (Data Format Description Language)
- DTD (Document Type Definition)
- Format Policy Registry (FPR) - used by Archivematica to indicate how to handle file formats
- JSON Table Schema (describes tabular data such as spreadsheets and CSV files)
- MediaTrace (technical report of file structure as interpreted by MediaArea tools)
- Synalysis grammar file (used by Synalize It! and Hexinator)
- XCEL (part of XCL project)
- XMDP (XHTML Meta Data Profiles)
- XML Schema Definition
Related: File identification software, Format validation and analysis software, File viewing and editing software
