These objects have attributes associated with them. These attributes describe the data object in a way such that data subscribers can pick and chose among them. The salamander system makes this object and property separation explicit at the interface level. The interface then gives this object and its properties to the salamander system which in turn gives it to any subscribers who may want it. Property lists are created with the routines in the propertyList.c file.
Property lists are just lists of properties.
To illustrate the data supply process, take the example of the UARC Sondrestrom Radar supplier. This supplier generates radar datasets at regular intervals. Every data supplier MUST chose a unique name. It is constructed of two numeric string catenated with a period. See the salamanderSupplier.c code for Unix code that generates these two well-known properties.