Richard Duncan
Institute for Signal and Information Processing
Mississippi State University
Phone/Fax: 601-325-3149 Email: duncan@isip.msstate.edu
URL: /research/isip/resources/seminars/isip_weekly/1998/signal_object_file/
Abstract:
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.