Re: Nautilus, metadata and extendet attributes



El sáb, 31-01-2004 a las 04:18, Julien Olivier escribió:
> > Is that a bad joke ? I get nearly *one hundred* Windows virus daily
> > which exploit the fact that stupid people encoded metadata into the
> > filename.
> 
> What we are ALL waiting for are examples of how using file extensions
> the way Nautilus plans to do it (in cooperation with sniffing) could be
> dangerous.
> 

If extensions are used for determining file types but sniffing is used
when files are clicked, shell scripts can pass by.  I don't know if
Nautilus executes shell scripts upon clicking, but this is not the
point.

If users have associated Windows executable files with WINE, for
example, wine will run files whether they have extensions or not, as
long as they are PE (portable executable) files.  Users can then receive
something masquerading as a picture, but upon run, discover that their
files are gone.  That the risk is 1-in-100000 does not matter.

The point is that encoding file type information in the file name is
wrong.  To a big extent, files already "know" which file type are
themselves, the problem is that the file manager is slow in determining
file types because it has to sniff.

Extensions are just a hack, not a proper file type specification.  The
current status quo is, therefore, a hack.  Unknowing users will always
trample on that hack in the most unexpected way.  I myself have intended
to rename files and kill the extension in the process.   That's exactly
why Windows Explorer hides extensions by default.  And if Nautilus goes
that route to avoid "user stupidity" (which is actually programmer
stupidity) we'll end up with the same situation as with Windows
Explorer.

Besides, it's about time I should be able to have OpenOffice files on my
folders that don't have an extension, yet they open properly when I
double-click them.  Get the point?

> Please please please... tell us !
-- 
	Manuel Amador (Rudd-O)
	GPG key ID: 0xC1033CAD at keyserver.net

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