Re: RFC: Bytecode file format

[Damien Neil]

On Sat, Sep 15, 2001 at 01:03:51AM +0300, Jarkko Hietaniemi wrote:
> > Re: IFF.  Being an old Amiga user, I find it appealing.  Is the lack
> > of a dictionary likely to be a significant problem?
> 
> Please elaborate. 

IFF stores a linear series of chunks.  Each chunk has a header containing
the chunk id, and the size of the chunk.  In order to get a listing of
all chunks in an IFF file, you need to do a linear scan of the chunks.

A file format with a dictionary would contain a single section with
a list of all chunks in the file, eliminating the need to do numerous
seeks and reads to pull in the contents.

                        - Damien