Re: Mac OS X 10.1 File Name Extension Guidelines
Re: Mac OS X 10.1 File Name Extension Guidelines
- Subject: Re: Mac OS X 10.1 File Name Extension Guidelines
- From: "John C. Randolph" <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 00:34:27 -0700
On Sunday, September 9, 2001, at 09:21 PM, Neal A. Crocker wrote:
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 13:47:04 -0700
Subject: Re: Mac OS X 10.1 File Name Extension Guidelines
Cc: Bill Chin <email@hidden>, <email@hidden>
To: Brendan Younger <email@hidden>
From: "John C. Randolph" <email@hidden>
On Sunday, September 9, 2001, at 10:49 AM, Brendan Younger wrote:
> The fact that it is a four "character" code does not in *any* way
limit
> it.
Of course it does. It's supposed to be a menemonic
no, it's not (as far as I know).
Yes it is. (Keep in mind, I started coding for the Mac in 1984, and the
first edition of Inside Mac was quite clear that you should pick your
type and creator codes to make it obvious to a human being what they
indicated. "PICT" and "MPNT" for a picture file made by MacPaint were
given as examples.)
Four character codes are used in Mac APIs for a great variety things
besides file types and these APIs go to great lengths (using "#define,
enum statements and other language mechanisms) to supply (i.e. "expose"
as part of the API) semantically meaningful symbols that represent four
letter codes which are often obscure.
Those are not the type and creator codes.
-jcr
"The Digital Millenium Copyright Act is the latest legislative proof of
the Peter Principle."