Wednesday, 19 March 2008

who reads who

How many file formats exist? It's not easy to count all the variants. It's diifficult to associate a name to a format, unless you have a direct experience with the corresponding files, of course. Many instruments and programs are no more in production. How can we quantify the archives of data they have produced? Should we mind? I think we should not, unless the file format has been publicly defined.
The first column, in the table below, contains the links to my sources of information (the web pages of the makers). I have refused to report some formats, however supported, when I question the real existence or relevance of them in 2008. The classic example is the GE/Nicolet file format. For each brand, more formats can exist:
var = Varian = XL, VNMR.
bru = Bruker = AM, XWin-NMR, Win-NMR.
jeol = Delta, GX, Alice, Alpha, Lambda, Generic v.1 and Generic v.2.
tec = Tecmag = MacFID, NTNMR, MacNMR
che = Chemagnetic - Spinsight.
jdx = JCAMP-DX.
felix = Felix = Felix, Win-Felix, Felix .mat.
pipe = NMRPipe.
Nuts = Acorn Nuts = type 1, type 2 and type 3.
mest = MestReLab Research = MestRe-C (.mrc), MestReNova (.mnova).
swan = SwaN-MR.
.txt = ASCII, which means a different thing for each program and nothing in particular (JCAMP is also ASCII, for example).
NMRi = I am not sure what it means. I know about GE scanners and Siemens scanners and consider them as two distinct formats ("GE_MED_NMR" and .rda). With the single exception of iNMR, nobody mentions them. Does their "NMRi" correspond to one of the two mentioned scanners?
Thumbs down for Jeol, who created way too many file formats, a clear sign of confusion.



Prog\filevarbrujeolchetecjdxfelixpipenutsmestswan.txtNMRi

ACD
137121--1--1-
Delta1271-12-1----
iNMR133131-1-1112
MestReNova2341-1--121--
NPNMR111--112---1
Nuts13713---3---1
Spin Works11-----------
SwaN-MR221-2-1-1-11-

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