I think this section should be more clearly (and cleanly) organized. It is very hard to tell which parts belong together. As such, "are written with more concern for clarity than efficiency" is somewhat ironic :-) I'd suggest introducing new sections where that seems appropriate. E.g. "Rule for extracting file data from a file entry" clearly seems like it should be a section heading rather than just a boldened paragraph.
At the moment it has one section 9.1 and various sections starting with "Step" with no number. That should be sorted out. "Processing Rules" is probably also better renamed to indicate it is just a bunch of algorithms used in the section that follows. E.g. "common processing infrastructure" or something. -- Anne van Kesteren http://annevankesteren.nl/
