Re: Type/Creator Codes
Re: Type/Creator Codes
- Subject: Re: Type/Creator Codes
- From: Fritz Anderson <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 13:38:15 -0500
At 9:23 AM -0700 5/15/2001, Ryan Dary wrote:
In the case of your "My Letter" example, this is where a
Type/Creator solution is nice, however it does restrict the
knowledge of a web server from knowing how to translate your file,
although I suppose it would simply not translate your file and just
transfer it as binary, which is fine in many cases... but it still
doesn't provide a hint of type (which is nice to know).
In the year 2000: All drafts of your risumi will be broadcast through
web servers!
Seriously, isn't one of the reasons to have a personal computer, that
you can organize your work with the minimum of constraint from
outside? That you don't have to worry about the technical
requirements of publishing until it comes time to publish?
Even an HTTP server uses MIME types to identify the semantics of
files when they are published. Servers often _infer_ those types
from extensions, but that doesn't mean that extensions are a good
file-typing mechanism. Mac OS 7-9 inferred MIME types from all the
information the file system provided -- name, type, _and_ creator.
Mac OS X, and even Apache under Mac OS X, can do the same; smart
people are on the job.
Creator codes are taking a beating from the way the 10.0 Finder
punishes their use. "Set a creator code, will you?! All right, if
that's the app you set, that's the app you user will get --
forevermore! With no hope of changing or overriding it! We'll deny
him the choice, and tell him it's ALL YOUR FAULT! MWA-HA-Ha-ha!"
Well, yeah, with that kind of treatment, I'd hate creator codes too.
If the Finder chose to zero all files whose names contained the
letter "c," I'd have to agree that the letter "c" in file names was
obsolete, and an inconvenience to the user.
It's the first release. In six months, it'll all be different, and
almost certainly much better. And probably not involve type/creator
in any recognizable way. And we'll all be happier.
-- F