On Fri, Sep 17, 2004 at 10:46:36AM -0400, Jonadab the Unsightly One wrote: > 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.
"make" is an important example here > * 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. --
