An "I.F. protocol" is a form of systematic characterization across different implementation files.  If an I.F. subscribes to a protocol, it identifies such a condition through its "Protocol" global function.  BARfly recognizes several of these protocols and reports the protocols supported by an I.F as plain text.  Choose Information.Show Protocol Info from the menu to display supported protocols.

In this example, an I.F. is demonstrated to support the "detailedformat," "forcebigendian," and "strongvalidation" protocols.  The first states the file format is supported in a detailed fashion (as opposed to a more general fashion), the second, that the byte order of the file is all in big-endian, and the third, that the file contains strong validation.  Protocols are constantly being developed and revised; you should check the official BARfly website frequently to keep track of protocol definitions and standards.

You can also create private protocols.  If you want to develop several proprietary formats and standardize features across such formats, you can have each I.F. developed with a common protocol that is never officially published.

An I.F. is not actually required to support any protocols.  If there is no "Protocol" function defined in an I.F., the I.F. supports no protocols.

To support a protocol in an I.F., create a "Protocol" global function somewhere in the text body.  To get the result in the above example, make the function body look like this:

bool Protocol(const char *name) {
  if (!strcmp(name, "detailedformat")) return true;
  if (!strcmp(name, "forcebigendian")) return true;
  if (!strcmp(name, "strongvalidation")) return true;

  return false;
};

  See also: [Viewing node information] [Viewing the log] [Viewing memory blocks]
[Viewing file information] [Construct hierarchy diagrams] [Load/Save failure reporting]