RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format) is the tagged file structure developed for multimedia resource files. The structure of a RIFF file is similar to the structure of an Electronic Arts IFF file. In fact, RIFF is not actually a file format itself (since it does not represent a specific kind of information), but its name contains the words “interchange file format” in recognition of its roots in IFF. Refer to the EA IFF definition document, EA IFF 85 Standard for Interchange Format Files, for a list of reasons to use a tagged file format.
The Multimedia file I/O services provide support for working with RIFF files. For information on the file I/O services, see Chapter 9, “Multimedia File I/O Services,” in the Programmer's Workbook. Also, functions, messages, and data structures provided by the Multimedia file I/O services are described in this Reference.