RELOAD

The current lump format is, in many cases, a kludge. RELOAD is a proposed format to replace existing data lumps with marked up data, enabling backwards compatibility without the need for a data upgrade procedure, and allowing semantic access to data.

Several formats were considered, and I (Mike C.) decided that none were satisfactory for this purpose. So, I came up with the idea of RELOAD.

Really Efficient List Of Arbitrary Data (an alternative

The format is that of a hierarchal tree. The file format is essentially a root node that contains everything in the file. Children can be nested to an arbitrary degree, similar to other formats such as XML or JSON, without some of the overhead of a text-based language.

To be sure, there is overhead, but the benefit of being able to ask for, say, the "text box's text" instead of "the data at offset 32" makes this solution superior to a flat data file.

RELOAD format

A RELOAD file consists of two parts: A header, and the body.

File Header

About Formal Specs

Data	Meaning
BYTE * 4	Magic word "RELD"
INT	Version number (currently 1)
INT	Header size (altogether, should be 12)

Body

The body is composed of a single element, known as the "root" element. The root contains all the data in the file, as children. Theoretically, the root could be a string element, with a simple payload, but in practise, it will always be a "container" element.

An Element

Data	Meaning
SHORT	Tag name, stored in the string table
BYTE	Type of element. See below for a list.
???	Data. This data is wholly dependent on the Type INT. See below for more details.

The data chunk can be any of the following types.

Element Type 0 (8-bit integer)

Data	Meaning
BYTE	The integer to be stored.

Element Type 1 (16-bit integer)

Data	Meaning
SHORT	The integer to be stored.

Element Type 2 (32-bit integer)

Data	Meaning
INT	The integer to be stored.

Element Type 3 (64-bit integer)

Data	Meaning
INT * 2	The integer to be stored.

Element Type 4 (double precision float)

Data	Meaning
DOUBLE	The float to be stored.

Element Type 5 (string, inline)

Data	Meaning
INT	Size of string
BYTE * size	The string data

Element Type 6 (string, table)

Data	Meaning
SHORT	The string number in the string table

Element Type 7 (children)

Children are whole elements said to be "contained" by this one.

Data	Meaning
INT	Size of data (not including this INT)
INT	Number of children
???	each child element, back to back