Since a large part of any data-driven programming project is I/O, we have developed Sof (signal object file) to serve as the base class of the ISIP environment. Sof provides the basis for our paradigm that all objects know how to read and write themselves. An index is maintained pointing to all objects within the file, but all data is left on the disk until needed. Sof deals with both ASCII and binary files, and binary files inherently handle machine architecture differences with automatic byte transformations. User input parameter files in the ISIP environment are ASCII Sof files, but binary mode is typically used for large quantities of data for the obvious efficiency gains.

In this talk we will review rudimentary features of the user interface and demonstrate basic functionality. An introductory programming assignment is available at /hse/ies/resources/technology/software/1998/foundation_classes/sof/sof_tutorial. The remainder of the talk will address possible future directions for Sof, including the addition of a parser object for multi-data object ASCII read methods.