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: Ondra Cada <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 23:21:09 +0200
Paul,
I should not join this debate again... should not... SHOULD NOT... well...
>
>>>>> Paul Bayley (PB) wrote at Mon, 10 Sep 2001 13:03:54 -0700:
PB> >Actually, with file name extensions, I can create an application that
PB> >uses .hypertext as an extension under Mac OS X today. With current HFS+
PB> >implementation, we're limited to 4 character type codes (HTXT). Which
PB> >one is more limiting?
PB>
PB> Because the 4 char code isn't supposed to be visible (that's what the
PB> Kind is for!) you're limited to 4 billion types.
Actually, speaking of _limitations_, type codes as currently implemented in
OSX are provably the thing which is less flexible. The number of codes is
quite unimportant; the difference is that extensions can express hiearachical
typing (and, albeit in a limited way, actually do). Type codes can't.
A particular example might be .tar.gz. It is more than just .gz; it brings
not just the information "this can be decoded by gzip" as any other .gz file,
but *also* it informs "it can be decoded by gnutar -z".
Another example is the subtyping of backup files (like .rtf and .rtf~, or
.nib and .nib~, or, actually, .whatever and .whatever~).
---
Ondra Cada
OCSoftware: email@hidden
http://www.ocs.cz
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