Structure
The underlying file format is ASN.1, with tag/length/value blocks. Text values of attributes and elements are therefore stored with length prefixes rather than end delimiters, so there is no need to escape special characters. The equivalent of end tags ("terminators") are only needed at the end of a list of child-elements, and binary data need not be base64 encoded.
Fast Infoset is a higher level format built upon ASN.1 formalisms. Element and attribute names are stored within the octet stream, unlike traditional ASN.1. This means that it is possible to recover a conventional XML file from the binary stream without the need to reference any XML Schema. It does not attempt to convert an XML Schema directly into an ASN.1 definition. (ASN.1 "Tags" are just type names, e.g. String, Integer, or complex types.) ASN.1 together with ECN is used to define the file format.
An index table is built for most strings, which includes element and attribute names, and their values. This means that the text of repeated tags and values only appears once per document.
Read more about this topic: Fast Infoset
Famous quotes containing the word structure:
“Each structure and institution here was so primitive that you could at once refer it to its source; but our buildings commonly suggest neither their origin nor their purpose.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is difficult even to choose the adjective
For this blank cold, this sadness without cause.
The great structure has become a minor house.
No turban walks across the lessened floors.
The greenhouse never so badly needed paint.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“One theme links together these new proposals for family policy—the idea that the family is exceedingly durable. Changes in structure and function and individual roles are not to be confused with the collapse of the family. Families remain more important in the lives of children than other institutions. Family ties are stronger and more vital than many of us imagine in the perennial atmosphere of crisis surrounding the subject.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)