The magic number at the start of many binary formats is arguably an initiator for the entire format.
I have also seen binary formats that prefix all data fields with a tag indicating what type of field they are. This tag could be thought of as an initiator to the corresponding field. See DER encoding for an example of this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Syntax_Notation_One#Example_encoded_in_DER Having said that, I do not think I would describe this as an initiator without being prompted. I believe DFDL requires that initiators be expressed as character stings, and therefore be a multiple of 8 bits long. For a binary format, this is a rather arbitrary restriction. ________________________________ From: Costello, Roger L. <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2019 8:14 AM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Have you ever seen an initiator used in a binary file format? Hello DFDL community, Have you ever seen an initiator used in a binary file format? If yes, would you describe how it was used, please? /Roger
