[Advocacy] Re: [Speex-dev] Re: [xiph-rtp] Re: [Vorbis-dev] Proposal: An extension to rules all others

[Ian Malone]

On 11/02/07, Ian Malone <ibmalone at gmail.com> wrote:
<baulks slightly on remembering how many lists this goes to
and a decent number I'm not subscribed to...>

> (What list should this be on?  I realise some of these lists are
> to get attention from slightly peripheral groups, but should it
> be moved to ogg-dev/advocacy?)
>
> On 17/01/07, Tom Grandgent <tgrand at canvaslink.com> wrote:
> > Sorry, but I think generic extension names are far from perfect.  Here
> > are some additional problems to consider:
> >

<snippery>

>
> > Finally, I disagree with your assessment of .oga/.ogv on all counts.
> > Three letter extensions are good for many reasons: easy to display,
> > easy to read, easy to type, and overall it's a familiar, consistent,
> > and tried-and-true approach.  I also don't see how they're hard to
> > remember (people are quite used to remembering TLAs), especially if
> > they follow a logical and consistent naming convention like .oga/.ogv.
> >
>

A recent thread on fedora-list[1] got into the extensions discussion and
reminded me that this hadn't reached a definite conclusion here.
The points I remember that came out were:

(Comments apply to Ogg physical streams stored in files)
* The main desire is to differentiate the extensions for streams
  containing A/V and A only.
* Extensions depending on the codec type aren't a great idea.
* A simple scheme is preferred.

The more marketing oriented suggestions are potentially confusing
and not likely to be accepted readily, this leaves us with two schemes
that were popular:

.oga / .ogv  (new extensions, with .ogg remaining for legacy and corner
  case uses)
.ogg / .ogm (legacy extensions, possible drawback in not leaving
  room for corner cases and requiring existing files to be renamed.
  I got the impression the existing .ogm was something of a hack)

I'll add:
.oggaudio, .oggvideo
with the argument that it provides recognition as connected with
the current .ogg extension and quietly educates end users about
different applications for the format (which provides a little mental
backward compatibility).

[1] "Why is Fedora a multimedia disaster? - Here is why."
  <https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2007-April/msg01825.html>

-- 
imalone