DDIF(5) File Formats Manual DDIF(5)
Name
DDIF - Digital Document Interchange Format (DDIF) files
Description
Digital Document Interchange Format (DDIF) is a DDIS/ASN.1 encoding for the interchange of revisable compound documents with document pro-
cessing systems. DDIF is also a document output format, a storage format for user documents residing on a disk, and a compound document
format.
The purpose of DDIF is to allow the creation of compound documents and also to serve as a standard intermediate format for the conversion
of documents based on other formats. For example, a simple ASCII text file can be converted to DDIF, and the DDIF file can then be con-
verted to PostScript. A DDIF document can also be converted to ASCII.
DDIF files are documents or portions of compound documents. A DDIF document is considered a simple document if it consists of one file. A
DDIF document is considered a compound document if it consists of more than one file, the master of which must be a DDIF file.
A DDIF file can contain storage addresses (for example, filename) of other files, which must be DDIF, ASCII text, binary, or PostScript.
References to DOTS files is not supported.
Because a DDIF file can reference another DDIF file and the referenced DDIF file can reference other DDIF files, a DDIF document can con-
sist of a tree of files.
The following commands are used to manipulate DDIF files:
cdoc Provides a set of converters to and from DDIF format.
ctod Packs DDIF documents into DOTS syntax. The user can choose to archive a DDIF document in this manner. The command
also copies DDIF files from one location to another.
dtoc Copies DDIF files from one location to another.
dxvdoc Enables user to view DDIF documents. The command is used on workstations running ULTRIX UWS software. The command can
also display imbedded graphics and image data that is encoded in the DDIF syntax.
vdoc Enables user to view DDIF documents. The command is for use on character-cell terminals.
DDIF documents can be mailed to other users.
See Also
cdoc(1), ctod(1), dtoc(1), vdoc(1), dxvdoc(1X), DOTS(5), DDIS(5)
DDIF(5)