Creation of a file translation language for networks

The rapid growth of large, national computer networks (as exemplified by ARPA) has created a serious problem in the sharing of information between incompatible systems. These incompatibilities can be either physical, contextual, or organizational in nature. A special-purpose, high-level language, entitled FTL, is proposed as a possible solution. With FTL a user initially views his information as an unbounded binary bit stream without artificial boundaries or predetermined meanings. The statements and primitives in FTL allow a user to first impose any structure desired on the input bit stream and secondly to restructure the information into a form that will allow it to be compatible with the conventions of the destination node. The subsequent execution of an FTL program will actually effect a translation of the specified input file into the desired output file.