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1.1       root        1: .TH "Viewpointfiles" 5 "16-Feb-87" "Xerox (WRC)"
                      2: .\" $Header: Viewpointfiles.n,v 1.1 87/04/01 13:55:09 ed Exp $
                      3: .SH NAME
                      4: Viewpoint files - format of Viewpoint files as stored on Unix
                      5: .SH DESCRIPTION
                      6: Viewpoint  related files may be stored on a Unix system through retrieval
                      7: from an NS file server via \fIxnsftp\fR or storage to the Unix file services
                      8: \fIFiling4d\fR, \fIFiling5d\fR, \fIFiling6d\fR or \fIFilingSubset1d\fR. 
                      9: Viewpoint files actually consist of two critical parts, attributes and content.
                     10: To maintain the ability to use these files within Viewpoint, both parts must be
                     11: retained on the Unix file system. Currently that is done in one of several ways 
                     12: depending upon the file \fItype\fR and \fIisDirectory\fR attributes.
                     13: .PP
                     14: A certain class of files are generally transferred for content only. The file
                     15: types \fItDirectory\fR, \fItText\fR, \fIInterpress\fR and \fIViewpoint
                     16: Canvases (RES)\fR are retained as \(n'content-only\(n' files; the only attributes
                     17: maintained are those which can be saved in or implied from the file structure
                     18: itself
                     19: (\fIcreatedOn\fR, \fIdataSize\fR, \fIisDirectory\fR, \fImodifiedOn\fR, \fIname\fR,
                     20: \fIpathname\fR, \fItype\fR and \fIversion\fR).
                     21: .PP
                     22: The remainder of file types are stored on the Unix system with both attributes
                     23: and content in a single file. Files of this type are specific to Xerox
                     24: applications, such as Viewpoint, network services, 860, etc.. 
                     25: Examples of these files are Viewpoint 
                     26: documents, books, spreadsheets, applications, 860 documents and printer fonts.
                     27: .PP
                     28: These files are retained on Unix in a file having the following format: a header
                     29: \*(lqviewpoint-files/xerox\*(rq followed by a Cardinal (16 bits) containing 
                     30: the size in bytes of the maintained attributes, a Sequence of Attributes which
                     31: contains the relevant file attributes followed by the file content.
                     32: The Unix tools will determine the file type by looking through the attribute 
                     33: sequence for the \fItype\fR attribute.
                     34: .PP
                     35: Some of the above file types are in fact \(n'directories\(n' of other files which are
                     36: treated as a single entity; in this case, the \fIisDirectory\fR attribute is
                     37: TRUE. For these files, the \fISerialize\fR/\fIDeserialize\fR procedures are used and the file
                     38: content saved is the actual serialized stream of file and descendant's attributes
                     39: and content.    
                     40: .SH NOTES
                     41: The scheme is obviously not foolproof but provides a simple mechanism to deal
                     42: with the files deemed most useful to casual users of the tools. No attempt has
                     43: been made to provide a \(n'full\(n' file service since there are cases where only the 
                     44: file content is desired to provide interchangability with Unix tools.
                     45: .PP
                     46: Although this scheme allows a large set of attributes to be retained with the
                     47: file, not all of these attributes may be available and/or returned to 
                     48: interested clients.
                     49: .SH "SEE ALSO"
                     50: xnsftp(1N), Filing4d(1N), Filing5d(1N), Filing6d(1N), FilingSubset1d(1N)
                     51: .br
                     52: Filing Protocol, \s8XSIS\s0 108605 (May 1986)
                     53: .SH AUTHORS
                     54: Ed Flint

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