At the very heart of the ASTERIX system lies a set of library routines called the Abstract Data Interface (ADI). These routines were created by David Allen (DJA) to facilitate the storage of information and data independent of any external file format.
This is done through a set of pointers to either raw data types or structures of mixed data types. It also includes a scheme to allow for the calling of object oriented methods (ie. to implement procedures such as data output independent of the file type to be written to).
This document details why it might be necessary to replace the ADI library and outlines a scheme for doing so.