BML

What is BML?

• BML stands for Binary Markup Language
• BML was designed to carry data.
• BML was designed to be used in a file or in digital communication (socket, digital bus, ...).
• BML was designed to be light for encoding and decoding.
• BML tags are not predefined. You must define your own tags. Tags can be string, integer, or custom binary data.
• BML elements handle child elements as XML.

What are the differences between BML and XML ?

• An XML document is a string of character. A BML document is binary.
• An XML document is divided into Markup and Content. A BML document is divided into Headers with size information and Content
• BML does not handle attributes.
• BML handles Extensions. Extensions can be used to add custom fields to content or headers.

BML libraries & bindings:

• LIBBML (https://github.com/seagnal/bml) contains:
  • DOM XML equivalent C++ library : BML_NODE
  • SAX XML equivalent C library : SAB
  • Octave bindings
  • Python bindings

BML Documentations:

• BML & Libraries. This document contains format specification and libraries usage.
• BML presentation and library usage

BML Format specification 1.1:

Section Element BML

• Section Header BML

• EIF
  • Format: 1 bit.
  • 1: An extension section is available in current node
  • 0: No extension section
• ISS
  • Format: 3 bits unsigned integer.
  • if DSS != 0xF :
    • ISS means the size of Tag Size Section (minus 1)
  • else :
    • ISS == 0x7: Invalid Node (Used to mark end of children list)
    • ISS == 0: Bypass Node (Mainly used to byte align content)
    • Other behavior not defined
• DSS
  • Format: 4 bits unsigned integer.
  • if DSS == 0xF
    • This node is special, ISS contains special features
  • else
    • Size of Data Size (If 0, No Data section)
  • Section Header Extension

• EIF
  • Format: 1 bit.
  • 1: Another extension section is available after current
  • 0: No further extension section
• ESS
  • Format: 3 bits unsigned integer.
  • ESS means the size of EXT Size Section (minus 1)
• EID
  • Format: 4 bits unsigned integer.
  • ID of extension. This can be used freely. (In current decoding libray used to mix order of first 16 extensions)
  • File Header BML