A language-based design for portable data files
C. Burch · ACM SIGPLAN Notices · 1989
Currently data files to be accessed remotely from dissimilar systems must be transformed to the local language processors' file format and data representation; a process that has changed little since punch cards were the main form of portable data files. A standard is proposed for languages to use the data type information available to the runtime library to make these data transformations before the data is transferred to the file or the user's variables. By specifying one binary format for each basic data type (integer, real, logical, etc) and a file organization that is portable between record-oriented and stream-oriented file systems, we can standardize file formats that will be usable on practically all current systems.