|
|
Text files do not normally carry explicit identification of the intended interpretation of the text stream as some kind of information or [un]structured data. There are a variety of practices and conventions for hinting such intended interpretations as agreements/protocols between originators and consumers of such digital texts. SemFix is one more protocol, one intended for general use where there is no existing protocol or one that requires more-explicit identification under interchange of persistent digital texts, especially via archives where the texts are removed from the original context of creation and use.
The key for SemFixing a text file is that under ordinary interpretations of the data, the SemFix prolog appears as commentary that can be ignored without disturbing the text as it appears and may already be interpreted.
SemFix formatting is inspired by use of "#!" (hashbang or shebang) to prefix text files with a link to the processing application for the text file as a script. Instead of locating the program that treats the text as a script, SemFix "#?"-prefixed lines identify the format and interpretation of the file, not the location of a program or even specific processing. Specifying the location of a specific program and implied operation occurs at best as a degenerate, limited-interoperability hint.
SemFix prologues determine suitable interpretation by a processor, usually without any assumption of choice and location of software to provide that processing. The objective is to provide a durable means of format identification that can be relied upon across platforms, with no brittle assumptions about format deviations and about how programs are located and initiated. Ambiguity is not always eliminated. SemFix is a means for confinement of any ambiguities within the provisions of the identified format specification.
SemFix was inspired by the undocumented deviations among wiki texts and the need to overcome MarkDown format ambiguity in offering the Literate UpDown alternative. As for Literate UpDown, It seems very easy to re-invent the wheel and also arrive at a duplicative dead end. To counter that, there will be an effort to avoid premature generalization and use versioning and careful working from the least that can possibly work.
- n170201b: SemFix Approach [latest material]
- n170201c: SemFix Considerations
- n170201a: Diary & Job Jar
- n131101: Literate UpDown
- Wikipedia. Shebang (Unix). 2016-11-21T11:54 article accessed at
<https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shebang_(Unix)&oldid=756002426>
- Hamilton, Dennis E.
- SemFix: Semantic Text Prefix. nfoWare nfoNote folio n170201 0.0.1. February 18, 2017. Accessed at <http://nfoWare.com/notes/2017/02/n170201.htm>.
|
|
created 2017-02-15-08:43 -0800 |
