Introduction

This tutorial tries to describe in detail the creation of an EDF+ file from scratch. Creating an EDF+ file implies the use of some programming language. I choose Java for the following reasons:

• It can be freely downloaded from the Internet
• It is multiplatform
• It includes built-in graphics capacities
• It handles XML
• It handles Unicode and UTF-8
• It is very well documented with a lot of tutorials accessible.

After considering other alternatives I think that this is the best choice. We are going to follow a very simple approach. We will begin by creating an ASCII file containing the values of a sin wave. This file is similar to a sampled signal stored in an ASCII file. Then we will create an EDF+ file based on these data. The whole process is similar to the process followed when we create an EDF+ file from real data obtained with a device able to export ASCII files.

We assume that you have downloaded and installed Java and that you are able to edit and compile a simple program. You will find an excellent set of tutorials in the Java SUN site.

These notes are not designed to teach you programming (I am not a programmer myself) but to show some very basic mechanisms in practice.