[X4U] importing audio CD as AIFF

[Edward Hillenbrand]

On Apr 29, 2005, at 2:43 AM, DZ-Jay wrote:

> and that it has a published specification, which guarantees that there 
> will always be a way to decode the files (at least the current 
> version), even if Apple decides to tighten their grip on the format.

AFAIK, there isn't a published specification for the Apple Lossless 
Audio Codec.  I haven't found documentation on Apple's website and I'm 
reluctant to switch until I know there is documentation.

This topic has come up on the CoreAudio developers mailing list too.  
According to the list there isn't any public documentation.
<http://lists.apple.com/archives/coreaudio-api/2004/Nov/msg00254.html>

There is an open source ALAC decoder written by David Hammerton.  He 
says he reverse engineered the file format to make the decoder.  He 
also says "Apple never released any documents on the format."
<http://craz.net/programs/itunes/alac.html>

-- Edward