The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), which is involved in the development of internet protocols and architecture, has completed the formation of an RFC for the free audio codec FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), developed by the Xiph.Org community. The specification related to the format has been published under the identifier RFC 9639. The RFC has received the status of 'Proposed Standard' and describes the current state of the FLAC compression format, with explicit additions for supporting 32-bit audio and introducing limitations for its adaptation.
The publication of the RFC is expected to simplify the creation of new FLAC decoder implementations from scratch and allow for the restoration of format support for accessing preserved audio files far into the future, after the FLAC format and its implementations fall into obscurity. Previously, developers were provided with documentation from the Xiph project and a reference implementation containing all necessary details. With the advent of the RFC, all information has been consolidated into a single document, relieving developers from the need to refer to the source code of the reference library or to sift through mailing list archives for specifics.
The FLAC codec employs lossless encoding methods, ensuring complete preservation of the original audio stream's quality and its identity with the reference version. The lossless compression methods used allow for a reduction in the size of the original audio stream by 50-60%. FLAC is a fully free streaming format, implying not only the openness of libraries implementing encoding and decoding functions but also the absence of restrictions on usage and the creation of derivative versions. The code of the reference libraries is distributed under the BSD license.
Source: opennet.ru
