"File types"

[Sridhar Ayengar]

Don wrote:
> Chuck Guzis wrote:
>> On 8/29/2006 at 12:28 PM Don wrote:
>>
>>> I.e. type needs to be finer grained than silly N *character*
>>> file "extensions"... *everyone* wants to be "DOC", or some
>>> other pronounceable extension.  So, the file types lose their
>>> value (e.g., on my W2K box, Matlab and Mathematica both want
>>> to use .m -- so, .m files are meaningless to me since I can't
>>> recall FROM THE NAME OF THE FILE which application needs to
>>> be opened to process the file).  MacOS *seems* to have had the
>>> right idea (though I have never used it "seriously" to know
>>> for sure).
>>
>> ...and you might add that there are no rules for "extensions".  In front
>> of me, I've got a disk with .FW and .PCL files.  And no--they don't have
>> anything to do with Frameworks or HP.  Neither is listed in Filext.com.
> 
> Exactly.  I have .DAT files that 3 different applications want
> to claim as their own.  About the only "file type" that I
> have NOT had problems with is ".dgy"  :>

That's what happens when you use the filename to store the information 
instead of a resource fork or something similar.

Peace...  Sridhar