Subject: Re: msword doc bug
From: Logan Hall (warrior514@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Wed Jan 19 2000 - 16:36:02 CST
Leonard Rosenthol wrote:
> At 1:51 PM -0700 1/19/00, Logan Hall wrote:
> >sterwill@abisource.com wrote:
> >
> >> Perhaps very soon we'll have a Mac port,
> > > and I'm not sure what we'll do there. I believe it's common to preserve
> >> the extension in the file names when dealing with Microsoft-tainted
> >> data on the Macintosh (is this true?).
> >>
> >
> >No its not true as far as i can remember.. being a long time Mac
> >user, the only
> >times i see extentions hevily used on the mac is when the *user* is microsoft
> >tainted and they don't know anybetter. Or the app is badly ported.
>
> The main place where you see extensions on the Mac, is where
> there is a good possibility that the user will be taking to the file
> to a platform (Wintel or Unix) that requires file extensions for
> "typing" the files. This is certainly most evident with files
> destined for the web (.html, .jpg, .gif, etc.), though even standard
> office files (.doc, .xls) or graphic files being exchanged (.psd,
> .ai, etc.).
>
Ah yes.. i forgot about html and jpg and gif. also for doc files, does word add
the extention if you save it as a windows word file? Not that it matters much
because i have yet to get a version of Word on windows to correctly import a Mac
Word file. I just rtf.
The point is that for the Mac port abi should just use the type/creater codes that
are already inplace to import and export. That would make it easer to avoid this
same problem of opening a file that isn't what its extention says it is. Also
could the Linux version use the magic number to associate files? that way we also
avoid a problem i have run in to before... opening binary files on accident
(postscript and pdf) and having tons of pages of garbage open. with the magic
number association we could pop up a dialog and ask if they realy want to open
this file.
>
> >On the mac
> >Word doesn't recognize extentions, nor do most apps. It goes off of the magic
> >number and the type/creater codes to open the files.
> >
> Right!
>
> LDR
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> You've got a SmartFriend? in Pennsylvania
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> Leonard Rosenthol Internet: leonardr@lazerware.com
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------ Logan Hall
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