The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a committee that develops Internet protocols and architecture, has completed the RFC for the free audio codec FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), developed by the Xiph.Org community. The specification associated with 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 the exception of explicitly adding support for 32-bit audio and introducing restrictions for its adaptation.
The publication of the RFC is intended to make it easier to create new implementations of the FLAC decoder from scratch, and to recreate support for the format to access surviving audio files in the distant future, after the FLAC format and its implementations have been forgotten. Previously, developers were provided with documentation from the Xiph project and a reference implementation containing all the necessary details. With the advent of the RFC, all the information is compiled into a single document, eliminating the need for developers to consult the source code of the reference library or search through mailing list archives for details.
The FLAC codec uses lossless encoding methods, which guarantees complete preservation of the original quality of the audio stream and its identity with the reference version. The lossless compression methods used make it possible to reduce the size of the original audio stream by 50-60%. FLAC is a completely free streaming format, which implies not only the openness of libraries with the implementation of encoding and decoding functions, but also the absence of restrictions on the use and creation of derivative versions. The code of the reference libraries is distributed under the BSD license.
Source: opennet.ru
