Language to describe document formats?

I wonder if it is possible (I mean easy really) to define a language
to describe the formats of, say, wordprocessor documents. Such
language would help user applications to read from/write to the
required format. Currently, in many applications each document format
is supported using one module for read and another module for write;
each has to be written/debugged/installed separately. With a format
language, one specification is enough. And we save those time
otherwise spent on writing yet another conversion utility.


And I can please my colleages here who have documents in exotic
formats :)


-------------------------------+-----------------------------
Nor Jaidi | email: jaidi@ubd.edu.bn
Department of Mathematics |
Universiti Brunei Darussalam | phone: 673-2-249001 ext 309
Brunei 2028 | fax: 673-2-249003
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