Syntactic utilities for CIF
B. McMahon · International Tables for Crystallography · 2006
This chapter reviews a number of standalone programs that manipulate the contents of Crystallographic Information Files at the syntactic level. They neither attempt to make any crystallographic calculation, nor do they use data definitions in CIF dictionaries to check for valid numeric ranges or permitted enumerations. They fall into a number of categories: syntax checkers, which ensure that the file contents are expressed correctly according to the CIF 1.1 or CIF 2.0 syntax models; syntax converters, which switch between the permitted syntax models or which reflow content in accordance with syntactic constraints; data extractors, which extract or re-order items within a file; and syntax highlighting utilities for visual editors, allowing interactive validation and correction of syntax errors.