LEX (File Format)
LEX (LE-CODE Extension) is a file format defined by Wiimm. A LEX file is usually stored as part of a track SZS under the name course.lex. It's like KMP's course.kmp, but it provides additional settings and modifications outside of a KMP.
LEX is designed to be open for future extension by third persons. Anyway, each new section identifier (a 4 byte ASCII magic) should be requested to Wiimm. he will guarantee unique identifiers.
At least LE-CODE will support LEX. Maybe CTGP wil do it too.
Degign Notes
There were some prerequisites before the definition of the file format:
- The format should be open for future extensions.
- Extensions are menages by sections. Each section is identified by an unique ID (magic).
- ID should be 4 ASCII characters to make viewing by a hex-dumper easiser.
- Old implementation should work, event if new unknown subtypes were added. Therefore, the code needs an easy skip mechanism.
- The order must be stable to support sections, that depend on other prior defined sections.
- Fast and easy scanning support.
File Format
Each file starts with a LEX header, followed by a sequence of LEX elements. The chain of elements is closed by a special termination element.
All values are stored in network byte order (big endian). Each element is aligned to 4 bytes.
| Offset | Size | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x00 | 4 | char | File magic, always »LE-X« |
| 0x04 | 2 | uint16 | The complete version number is devided into a major number (offset 4) and a minor number (offset 6). The major version changes, if the data structure changes in an incompatible way. On small changes like adding additional members to this file header, the minor version number is incremented. |
| 0x06 | 2 | uint16 | |
| 0x08 | 4 | uint32 | Total size of file. use it for sanity cheks. |
| 0x0c | 4 | uint32 | Offset first element of the chain relative to the beginning of this structure. |
| 0x10 | end of header | ||
The list of elements is managed as chain. The header of each element contains a magic to identify it, and a size:
| Offset | Size | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x00 | 4 | uint32 | A magic to identify the element (type of element). An alternative datatype is char[4]. |
| 0x04 | 4 | uint32 | Size of the element data. It is an offset to the next element relative to the data member too. The size is always a multiple of 4. |
| 0x08 | SIZE | * | Binary data of the element. |
| 0x08+SIZE | 8+ | element | The next element. |
- Some rules
- Duplicates of the same elements are forbidden.
- The chain of elements is well ordered. Tools should usually not change this order, except they know exactly what they do.
- Magic and size of the final element (terminator) are 0.
Example Implementation
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Sections
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CANN : Cannon settings
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