Juerd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Most worlds don't use file extensions, except for humans.
You exaggerate their lack of importance. File extensions don't matter to most operating system *kernels*, but they are nevertheless important for more than just Windows: * They are of critical importance on Apache-based webservers. * They instruct command-line tab completion for some shells. This IMO is a biggie, and would be even bigger if more shells were smarter. (eshell has a leg up here.) * They matter somewhat to many *nix applications, such as Emacs and Gimp. When I say "matter somewhat", I mean that the app understands what the extension means, and so in the absense of the extension you have to give the app additional information to compensate. * They matter to most GUI file managers in the *nix world. I personally don't use GUI file managers, but some people do. * They matter somewhat in the VMS world, though not as much as under Windows I think. * They matter in the OS/2 world, if anyone is still using that. Also DOS, with the same caveat. * On Mac OS X the extension matters for files that don't have filetype/creator codes attached to them yet (unless the file is coming from a source that supplies content-type, such as from a web server or as an email attachment, in which case the content-type instructs the addition of filetype/creator codes). The only OS I know of where file extensions are *totally* not used is Archimedes. It doesn't allow them at all, from what I understand. -- $;=sub{$/};@;=map{my($a,$b)=($_,$;);$;=sub{$a.$b->()}} split//,"[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ --";$\=$ ;-> ();print$/