Re(2): [vorbis-dev] Mime Type and Ogg (More)

[Ali Abdin]

On Sun, 15 Oct 2000, Taral wrote:

> On 15 Oct, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
> 
> > * To make recognization of the mime type easiest for file manager and
> >   shell applications, have a distinct sniffable magic number for each
> >   distinct mime type. Otherwise, algorithmic detection will be
> >   necessary, as for MP3. Having many file formats with no sniffable
> >   magic number slows down the whole user environment. Nautilus
> >   includes a highly optimized mime sniffer that works really fast, but
> >   if we have to require a lot of special cases, it will slow down a
> >   lot in the network case and on huge datasets. This is an opportunity
> >   to do even better than mpeg, where there is no suitable magic number
> >   detection. Really, there is no excuse for file formats designed in
> >   this day and age to not have suitable magic numbers.
> 
> I disagree. Why not have mime type application/x-ogg launch a "SuperOgg"
> program which passes on the request to the appropriate player?

Oh god no! Nautilus already always to you choose which application to 
launch based on mime-type. So if you the 'proper' mime-type exists, then 
voila - problem solved. This is probably a much simpler thing to do than 
write a SuperOgg program (thereby adding yet another dependency).

Also - you will have "performance" issues with this approach.
 
> > * To make recognition even easier and more correct in all cases, have
> >   a distinct extension per type. I bet this will be the more
> >   controversial point, but consider the fact that users have been very
> >   happy with the distinction between .mp3 and .mpg/.mpeg files - it
> >   allows users to organize their data in a way that semantically makes
> >   sense to them, rather than the way that makes the most sense to the
> >   program.
> 
> Wholeheartedly agreed. Even if the format is fundamentally the same, the
> difference between video+audio and audio only is substantial for users.
> And it's the users we care about, right?

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