From this standard, the new user can discover the kind and form of the binary data being exchanged over the network. Once this is known, the programs necessary for using the network facilities can be created. Still farther into the future, the text of a binary format standard could be used as input to compiler-like programs which automatically create data translation programs for converting one binary format to another. Right now, though, some kind of binary data description method, however trivial, is desperately needed. The basic component of a binary message is a simple field consisting of a consecutive number of bits in the message.
Binary messages consist of concatenated fields.
A format description for a binary message will consist of a title and four declarative sections. The legal ways of concatenating fields are indicated. The number of bits in each field and any special considerations of bit codings are declared. The following is a complete example of a binary message description for a trivial kind of pictorial data. The declaration of a simple field includes a symbolic name, and for lack of a better way, an English description of what the contents of the field represent.