Section 5.3.2.1.3. Limitations of vcif

Because the program is testing certain properties of character strings within logical lines of a file, it stores a line at a time for further internal processing. If a line contains a null character (an ASCII character with integer value zero), this will be taken as the termination of the string currently being processed, according to the normal conventions in the C programming language for marking the end of a text string. In this case, subsequent error messages may not reflect the real problem. The null character, of course, is not allowed in a CIF.

vcif also interprets syntax rules literally, so a misplaced semicolon might mean that a large section of the file is regarded as a text field and too many or too few error messages are generated. This can make a correct interpretation of the causative errors difficult for a novice user.