Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections
Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections |
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| Introduction | Sustainability Factors | Content Categories | Format Descriptions | Contact | |
| Full name | MOOF Disk Image |
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| Description |
MOOF is a Macintosh floppy disk image format designed for use with Applesauce, the Macintosh floppy drive controller. Applesauce was developed for retro-computing enthusiasts and digital archivists who need to work with floppy disks. The MOOF format is able to preserve copy-protected disk images by emulating protected software. According to John Morris' MOOF Disk Image Reference 1.0, it is one of the most simple image formats and it accurately emulates the Integrated Woz Machine (IWM) or Sander-Wozniak Integrated Machine (SWIM) chip. MOOF also encodes metadata about the disk image, such as disk name, product name, publisher, system requirements, and language. These are stored in the optional META Chunk as key-value pairs. Multiple values are pipe-separated. The name MOOF is not an acronym. It is a reference to Dogcow, a part of Macintosh lore. |
| Production phase | Middle-state. |
| Relationship to other formats | |
| Affinity to | WOZ, WOZ Disk Image. WOZ is a chunk-based binary Macintosh floppy disk image format designed for use with Applesauce, the Macintosh floppy drive controller. The MOOF and WOZ formats encode different metadata. |
| Affinity to | A2R, A2R Apple II Flux Disk Image. Also an offshoot of the Applesauce project. A container format for raw disk image files. |
| LC experience or existing holdings | None |
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| LC preference | The Library of Congress has not yet expressed any format preference for disk image files in its Recommended Formats Statement. |
| Disclosure | Version 1.0 is fully documented and disclosed. Comments welcome. |
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| Documentation | Documented in MOOF Disk Image Reference 1.0. |
| Adoption |
Created and supported by Applesauce. Support for MOOF was added to the MAME Project on September 28, 2022 in release 0.248. Support for MOOF was added to the Big Mess o’ Wires (BMOW) emulation firmware in December 2022. |
| Licensing and patents | Created by John K. Morris. No license. Comments welcome. |
| Transparency | Dependent upon algorithms and tools to read. |
| Self-documentation |
According to MOOF Disk Image Reference 1.0, the format utilizes a chunk-based, binary format designed for future-proof expandability. All data is stored in little-endian. Technical and descriptive metadata are stored in the INFO chunk. The chunk is versioned to allow for adding additional metadata in the future. Accessibility Support Support for accessibility features for is unknown and undocumented. However, the structured and consistent chunk based format including some provenance and descriptive embedded data in the META chunk could potentially be helpful. |
| External dependencies | Requires emulator software for use. |
| Technical protection considerations | None. |
| Tag | Value | Note |
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| Filename extension | moof |
From MOOF Disk Image Reference 1.0. |
| Magic numbers | ASCII: MOOF Hex: 4d4f4f46 |
All data is stored in Little Endian. The header is 12 bytes. The first 8 bytes contain the file signature. Following the magic number string of “MOOF” is (hex)FF, an intentionally blank space. This blank space exists to ensure there is no data corruption and that the magic numbers values are valid. However this practice is not required. The last 4 bytes of the header contain a CRC32 checksum of all remaining data in the file. See the specification for more details. |
| Other | See note. | No NARA File Format Preservation Plan ID entry as of February 2025. |
| Pronom PUID | See note. | PRONOM has no corresponding entry as of January 2024. |
| Wikidata Title ID | Q116870058 |
See https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q116870058. |
| General | |
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| History | The format takes its name from the spotted dog iconography crafted by Susan Kare, an early Macintosh designer. As a tribute to the creativity and playful ethos of the Macintosh pioneers, this disk image format is aptly named MOOF. |
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