Abstract / scope
Cancels and replaces the first edition (1985). Specifies an interchange format to facilitate the moving of files or parts of files containing data records between computer systems. Specifies: media-independent file and data record descriptions for information interchange; the description of data elements, vectors, arrays and hierarchies containing character strings, bit strings and numeric forms; a data descriptive file; a data descriptive record; three levels of complexity of file and record structure; FTAM unstructured and structured document types.