LYCOS RETRIEVER 
File Format: Documents
built 238 days ago
Write a specification describing the file format in detail. Make it freely available in a standard document format like HTML, PostScript or PDF (read: no Word DOC). Use English as your language of choice. Add your specification to the usual websites like
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Using file formats without a publicly available specification can be costly. Learning how the format works will require either reverse engineering it from a reference implementation or acquiring the specification document for a fee from the format developers. This second approach is possible only when there is a specification document, and typically requires the signing of a non-disclosure agreement. Both strategies require significant time, money, or both. Therefore, as a general rule, file formats with publicly available specifications are supported by a large number of programs, while non-public formats are supported by only a few programs.
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These designate the version of the file format. This document describes major version 3 of the format. This is the second revision of version 3, so the minor version is 1. Major versions 1 and 2 do not use the same format, and are not currently documented. Major version 4, Minor version 0 and Major version 3, Minor version 0 use an identical file format to that which is here described.
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In some instances it is easier to create web files in a format other than HTML. However, there are drawbacks to doing so. For example, when using Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF), (a) the contents of PDF files may not be included in site-wide full-text search indexes, (b) PDF viewers are not embedded in most Web browsers and (c) PDF viewers require more powerful hardware for on-line viewing than a Web browser alone.
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There are a few places where these file formats limit the maximum number of terms and documents to a 32-bit quantity, or to approximately 4 billion. This is not today a problem, but, in the long term, probably will be. These should therefore be replaced with either UInt64 values, or better yet, with VInt values which have no limit.
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