Re: YAMTDB - Mr. Project

["Gene Z. Ragan" <diskzero mac com>]

> This all may be true.
>
> However - I believe there are some errors in the way things work right 
> now. I am not quite sure what the appropriate solution would be. I 
> think I read some good ideas when I read through this thread history 
> in the list archives. Perhaps one of those ideas could lead to a 
> better solution if discussed more thoroughly.

I agree with you and I don't know the perfect answer either.  Apple is 
using a complex system combining type/creator tags, mime sniffing and 
file
extensions.  It is far from perfect.  The Windows file extension 
mechanism has all of the same issues that it has always had and some of 
these issues
have propagated into the Apple scheme.  Examining these systems and 
breaking down their issues would be a good start.

> And I don't propose that the file sniffing solution be discarded 
> completely. I suggest, rather, that the current system needs to be 
> tweaked.
>
> One idea that comes to my mind, perhaps, is the need for some new 
> standards.
>
>   1. There MUST be a magic file rule for every extension, when 
> possible.
>
>   2. That Gnome as a whole move away from "Gnome-only" solutions to 
> the world-friendly solutions suggested by the Free Desktop people. 
> (Sounds like there are parts of Gnome that are already using this.)
>
>   3. There MUST be a magic file rule for every XML based file format, 
> when possible.
>
> Please keep in that these are JUST ideas...

These sound like some really good starting points.

Gene