ColonDoc Description:

  Doctype Classes
        |
        |
     Doctype (Generic Document Type)
        |
        |
        ^
     COLONDOC

Field names are defined by, you guessed it, ':'.

COLONDOC is not really (intended to be) a document type but a parent for this "major" class of document formats. The COLONDOC class has been designed to provide a convienient base class for the development of user document types.

Examples of children are: BIBCOLON, IAFADOC and IKNOWDOC.

Colon Records:

	TAG1: ...
	.....
	TAG2: ...
	TAG3: ...
	...
	....

1. Fields are continued when the line has no tag
2. Field names may NOT contain white space. Although not explicitly required it is recomended that all field names use characters restricted to the the set of 7-bit ASCII characters excluding %(per-cent), $(dollar) and +(plus).
3. Field names are currently case independent, viz. From, FROM and from are all considered to name the same field.
4. The space BEFORE field names MAY contain white space
5. Between the field name and the ':' NO white space is allowed.
6. There is a compile time options to NOT allow white space before the start of the field name. While this makes life easier for continuation (one need not worry about formatting to prevent bogus fields) it forces a more rigid format.
7. There is no specific limitation on the length of a line. The maximal line and field length is given by the maximal size of a memory block defined by the O/S on the host platform. On most 32-bit Unix platforms this is around 2 GB.
8. Should the document contain several records the user must specify the record seperator via a option to the Indexer (eg. -s " *****" for Ziff CD records)

Examples:

1. Dogs: This is a dog
   Cats: This is a cat
   Library Books: Literature

   The above fragement contains the fields DOGS and CATS. The Library Books... line belongs to the CATS field since it contains white space before the first ':' in the line, whence is interpreted as a continuation of the previous field.

2.  one: two: three:
   

   The field name is "one" the value is "two: three:"

3.    one: one: two:
              three: four
   

   The above contains 2(two) fields, "one" and "three"!

4. ABSTRACT: This is a description of some work of art. See
   Also: Elmer Fudd's Bio.

   The above example contains 2(two) fields. ABSTRACT and ALSO.

5. ABSTRACT: This is a description of some work of art.
   See Also: Elmer Fudd's Bio.

   The above example contains 1(one) field: ABSTRACT.

Although the COLONDOC format is ill-suited to heirarchical data its COLONGRP child is.

The MIME type for Raw Records is Application/X-COLONDOC.

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