commit e665b483b8bc3d538248fd1e50965cb22272aff3
parent 37e22ad522994f5cf3976a5da3252f176ad25ca6
Author: neau <neau@web>
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2022 17:44:12 +0200
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+**Interchange File Format** is a generic container file format originally introduced by the [[Electronic Arts]] company in 1985 (in cooperation with [[Commodore]]) in order to facilitate transfer of data between software produced by different companies.
+
+## Relevance to Permacomputing
+
+IFF helps minimize problems such as new versions of a particular program having trouble reading data files produced by older versions, or needing a new file format everytime a new version needs to store additional information.
+
+It also encourages standardized file formats that aren't tied to a particular product. All of this is good for endusers because it means that their valuable data isn't locked into some proprietary standard that can't be used with a wide variety of hardware and software. Above all else, endusers don't want their work to be held hostage by a single, corporate entity over whom the enduser has no direct control, but that's exactly what happens whenever an enduser saves his data using a program that produces a proprietary, unpublished file format.
+
+IFF helps to break this needlessly proprietary stranglehold that developers have exerted upon endusers' works.
