Document Content Architecture

DCA
Developed byIBM
Type of formatDocument file format
Extended toMO:DCA

Document Content Architecture, or DCA for short, is a standard developed by IBM for text documents in the early 1980s. DCA was used on mainframe and IBM i systems and formed the basis of DisplayWrite's file format. DCA was later extended as MO:DCA (Mixed Object Document Content Architecture), which added embedded data files.

The original purpose of DCA was to provide a common document format that could be used across multiple IBM word processing platforms, such as the IBM PC, IBM mainframes, the Displaywriter System, and the IBM 5520 Administrative System.[1]

DCA defines two types of documents:[2][3]

  • Revisable-Form Text (DCA/RFT) which is editable.
  • Final-Form Text (DCA/FFT) which is "formatted for a particular output device and cannot be changed."
  1. ^ Henkel, Tom (21 May 1984), "IBM taking the standardization route to DPP", Computerworld, vol. 18, no. 21, IDG Enterprise, p. 7, ISSN 0010-4841
  2. ^ "PC Magazine Encyclopedia". Retrieved July 25, 2012.
  3. ^ de la Beaujardière, Jean Marie (1988). "Well-established document interchange formats". Document Manipulation and Typography: Proceedings of the International Conference on Electronic Publishing, Document Manipulation and Typography, Nice (France) April 20-22 1988. CUP Archive. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-521-36294-8.