Tag: file formats

Unraveling the JPEG

It always amazes me how little do we know about everyday things around us. Today I came across “Unraveling the JPEG” article, which is a deep dive into the JPEG format. JPEG images all around us, but how much do we really now about them? I bet you even the most technical web developers and designers will have their hands full with this, let alone all the non-technical people who snap selfies on a daily basis.

Not only the article itself dives into the technical details, but it also provides an inline JPEG editor, which you can use to play around with the data and see how it affects things. Great job!

Validating CSV schema


CSV, or comma-separated values, is a very common format for managing all kinds of configurations, as well data manipulation.  As the linked Wikipedia page mentions, there are a few RFCs that try to standardize the format.  However, I thought, there is still a lack of schema-type standard that would allow one to define a format for particular file.

Today I came across an effort that attempts to do just that – CSV Schema Language v1.1 – an unofficial draft of the language for defining and validating CSV data.  This is work in progress by the Digital Preservation team at The National Archives.

Apart from the unofficial draft of the language, there is also an Open Source CSV Validator v1.1 application, written in Scala.




Do you know YAML?


I thought I did.  Especially after all the hours spent with Ansible.  Turns out I don’t.  I have a very limited understanding of the YAML format.  How do I know that, you ask?  Well, that’s because I am reading the YAML specification now.

yaml

Holy Molly that’s an interesting format!  Much recommended weekend reading.