2.3 File Format

A virtual code file consists of an optional text preamble, followed by the concrete representation for a tree. The latter uses the syntax described in the previous section. The purpose of this section is to specify the remaining details of the file format.

The format for virtual code files may also be used for other purposes by virtual code applications, as it is automatically detected and parsed by avram when used in an input file, and can be automatically written to output files at the discretion of the application.

Other than virtual code files, input files not conforming to this format are not an error as far as avram is concerned, because they are assumed to be text files. Applications can detect in virtual code the assumption that is made and report an error if appropriate.

Although the data file format includes no checksums or other explicit methods of error detection, the concrete syntax itself provides a good measure of protection against undetected errors. The probability is vanishingly small that a random alteration to any valid encoding leaves it intact, because every bit in the sequence either mandates or prohibits the occurrence of two more bits somewhere after it. Errors in different parts of the file would have to be consistent with one another to go unnoticed.

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