A Sample RTF Reader Implementation

The Microsoft Word Processing Conversions group uses a table-driven approach to reading RTF. This approach allows the most flexibility in reading RTF, with the corresponding problem that it’s difficult to detect incorrect RTF. An RTF reader that is based on this approach is presented below. This reader works exactly as described in the RTF specification and uses the principles of operation described in the RTF specification. This reader is designed to be simple to understand but is not intended to be very efficient. This RTF reader also implements the three design principles listed in the previous section.

The RTF reader consists of four files:

• Rtfdecl.h, which contains the prototypes for all the functions in the RTF reader
  
  
• Rtftype.h, which contains the types used in the RTF reader
  
  
• Rtfreadr.c, which contains the main program, the main loop of the RTF reader, and the RTF control parser
  
  
• Rtfactn.c, which contains the dispatch routines for the RTF reader