f="#section-9">9</a>. Author's Address .............................................. <a href="#page-17">17</a>

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" name="section-1" href="#section-1">1</a>. Introduction</span>

   1.1. Purpose

      The purpose of this specification is to define a lossless
      compressed data format that:
          * Is independent of CPU type, operating system, file system,
            and character set, and hence can be used for interchange;
          * Can be produced or consumed, e