ted@imsvax.UUCP (Ted Holden) (03/03/86)
Another question I hear frequently concerning the Navy DIF
(Document Interchange Format) standard concerns the difference
between it and the IBM DCA/DISOSS system. Both basically attempt
to function as a standardized file structure format for word
processing documents, the idea being to translate a document
from the source system's format to the standard format, send the
converted document to the target system, and then reconvert from
the standard format to the target systems format.
The difference is that the Navy DIF was carefully hammered
out in meetings amongst vendors and deliberately chosen and set
up in such a way as to make these translations as easy as
possible; it is generally similar to the file structure of a
reasonable full-function 1986 word processor. DCA/DISOSS was
handed down to the world in the usual manner from higher
authorities within IBM and resembles, believe it or not, the
functionality of a 1965 typewriter. An example: any reasonable
1986 word processor, in order to bold-face the name John, will
have a code meaning "bold-face on" followed by "John" followed by
a code meaning "bold-face off". Likewise with the DIF.
DCA/DISOSS, however will have "John", followed by a code meaning
"backspace 4", followed by "John" again, exactly what you would
do on an old selectric. There appears to be a straight line of
descent from the selectric to the file structure and workings of
Display-Writer to DCA/DISOSS. Needless to say, it is not easy to
write accurate translation programs from, say, WordPerfect, to
a typewriter, to, again say, a Hewlett-Packard 3000. The DIF
standard works better than DCA/DISOSS.