Re: Saving an AudioFile without an extension
Re: Saving an AudioFile without an extension
- Subject: Re: Saving an AudioFile without an extension
- From: Richard Dobson <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 04 Jul 2004 17:14:26 +0100
Herbie Robinson wrote:
1. You should remember that Apple's pundits don't pay your salary, the
users do. Some users are extremely ticked off at being forced to use
extensions when they don't want to.
They aren't forced to ~see~ extensions; you can hide a file extension on
a per file basis, via the Finder. That is what Rules 3 and 4 refer to. I
agree that users' needs are paramount. They need an easy and
comprehensible way to manage files of many kinds, and to open the file
of their choice with the application of their choice.
...There are still a number of Apple only shops
out there that very likely have established file names as part of their
operating procedures. Why punish them?
The rule clearly states that you do not modify the name of any existing
file, so no punishment. Rule 5 is pretty unambiguous: when saving any
~new~ file, whether using Save or Save As, you should provide an
extension, but hide it where requested. App developers are recommended
to offer this choice in the Save Dialog (Rule 3).
...
a. Rule 6 shown below is "Applications should not append an extension
or change the show/hide setting of a file that does not have an
extension." This means that defining and setting the file type and
creator is as important as it ever was. Some applications rewrite
existing files by renaming; so, even following Apple's rules, they will
need to add a creator and file type for new files.
What applications? Audio ones? Please tell me so I know to avoid them.
Rule 6 says clearly the obvious requirement that applications should not
modify the name of an existing file. If the file is read-only, they
can't anyway. Any app that does so is clearly, and possibly
catastrophically, disregarding that rule.
b. Many applications add extensions to the default file name displayed
in the save dialog, but will allow you to delete it.
According to the Rules, they should do so, but add the extension anyway
and mark it as hidden. The GUI user will not see the extension, so they
will be happy, but Terminal users will see it, and they will be happy too.
3. Even if you force an extension onto every file you write, some users
will delete the extensions and still expect the files to behave
properly.
Yes, the question is whether this is in fact in accordance with Apple
guidelines for OS X. Maybe an Apple person on the list can settle this
question?
Note that deleting the extension of an existing file in the main Finder
directory window doesn't actually delete it, but merely hides it. You
have to go to the "File->Get Info" dialog to truly delete the extension,
which will elicit a warning.
There are many cases where forcing extensions onto a file just doesn't
make sense. For example, I have scripts in Filemaker that export e-mail
addresses from my contact database to Eudora. If it suddenly started
appending ".txt." to all those filenames, my scripts would be broken.
Likewise, some other script would be broken if extensions were removed.
I repeat: there is no Rule that advocates modifying the name of an
existing file. To do so would always be wrong. We are talking about
creating new files.
And here's another example where extensions don't make any sense: SDII
files. SDII files bury all meta information in the resource fork; so,
there is no way they will ever be cleanly transportable outside the Mac
environment. Putting an extension on them just confuses users ("It had
the right extension, but my windows client still couldn't read it." --
paraphrased from a daw-mac post).
Wel, I agree that sd2 files are a special case! But your arguments would
apply equally to .wav and .aiff files, which are not exclusive to the
Mac. Creator types are simply inappropriate to application-agnostic and
portable files. I work routinely at the command-line (a paradigm of
course denied users of OS 9.x and its ancestors), and I rely on being
able to do things such as:
mkdir sffiles
cp *.aiff sffiles
It is common for me to save a file in some GUI app, and then go straight
to a Terminal session to perform other tasks, run programs, etc. I need
those extensions to be there, whether or not they are visible in the Finder.
As you no doubt have gathered, I have never been a fan of the File Type
and Creator Type stuff - especially as it seems one has no choice but to
find some third-party utility in order to change them. And they are far
from infallible. I still recall the day I tried to open an aiff file
identified by OS 8.x as an "MPW Shell Document". How daft is that?
Suffice it to say, double clicking on the file instantly crashed the OS.
This is where MacOS gets really mental - ignoring a file extension and
only reading the Type info. if the latter isn't present (e.g.
soundfiles transferred from a PC), the app greys out the names so you
can't even load them.
With OS X this system is simply obsolete, only there for backwards
compatibility. I hope it does not linger too long. We are in the unix
world now. File extensions are idiomatic to unix, and it is IMO far
better to embrace them whole-heartedly, than hang on desperately to
features of an obsolete and fast disappearing OS. Hiding extensions in a
GUI is a well-established practice on both Windows and MacOS, but at
least provide them behind the scenes so unix-savvy users can do their
stuff too!
Richard Dobson
...
* Make sure all of your document types have an associated filename
extension.
* Use the display name of a file whenever you display files in
your user interface. (See Getting Display Names in Your Code for
details.)
* Save dialogs should allow users to control whether to hide
filename extensions.
* Applications should preserve the existing show/hide setting and
filename extension when opening or saving a document.
* Applications should add an appropriate extension when saving a
new file or when saving an existing file using the Save As command.
* Applications should not append an extension or change the
show/hide setting of a file that does not have an extension.
* Applications should display an alert when the user tries to save
a file after typing a known, incorrect filename extension.
"
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