Explanation
RIFF files consist entirely of "chunks". The overall format is identical to IFF, except for the endianness as previously stated, and the different meaning of the chunk names.
All chunks have the following format:
- 4 bytes: an ASCII identifier for this chunk (examples are "fmt " and "data"; note the space in "fmt ").
- 4 bytes: an unsigned, little-endian 32-bit integer with the length of this chunk (except this field itself and the chunk identifier).
- variable-sized field: the chunk data itself, of the size given in the previous field.
- a pad byte, if the chunk's length is not even.
Two chunk identifiers, "RIFF" and "LIST", introduce a chunk that can contain subchunks. The RIFF and LIST chunk data (appearing after the identifier and length) has the following format:
- 4 bytes: an ASCII identifier for this particular RIFF or LIST chunk (for RIFF in the typical case, these 4 bytes describe the content of the entire file, such as "AVI " or "WAVE").
- rest of data: subchunks.
The file itself consists of one RIFF chunk, which then can contain further subchunks: hence, the first four bytes of a correctly-formatted RIFF file will spell out "R", "I", "F", "F".
More information about the RIFF format can be found in the Interchange File Format article.
RF64 is a multichannel file format based on RIFF specification, developed by the European Broadcasting Union. It is BWF-compatible and allows file sizes to exceed 4 gigabytes
Read more about this topic: Resource Interchange File Format
Famous quotes containing the word explanation:
“The explanation of the propensity of the English people to portrait painting is to be found in their relish for a Fact. Let a man do the grandest things, fight the greatest battles, or be distinguished by the most brilliant personal heroism, yet the English people would prefer his portrait to a painting of the great deed. The likeness they can judge of; his existence is a Fact. But the truth of the picture of his deeds they cannot judge of, for they have no imagination.”
—Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846)
“Are cans constitutionally iffy? Whenever, that is, we say that we can do something, or could do something, or could have done something, is there an if in the offing—suppressed, it may be, but due nevertheless to appear when we set out our sentence in full or when we give an explanation of its meaning?”
—J.L. (John Langshaw)
“My companion assumes to know my mood and habit of thought, and we go on from explanation to explanation, until all is said that words can, and we leave matters just as they were at first, because of that vicious assumption.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)