[vorbis-dev] Re: [theora-dev] Re: Ogg Internet Drafts - create application/ogg-vorbis, application/ogg-tarkin, etc.

[Grzegorz Adam Hankiewicz]

On Thu, Jan 02, 2003 at 01:48:59PM -0500, David Wheeler wrote:
> > If a file manager determines the type of a file by its extension,
> > that means the file manager needs to be made smarter.
> >
> > [In case you want to know what filemanager is already that smart,
> > I don't know. My filemanager is the command line ;)]
> 
> It's not a Microsoft issue.  All the graphical user environments
> for Linux and Unix (e.g., GNOME, KDE, CDE) primarily depend on
> filename extensions to determine the MIME type.  You can do more,
> but it's more painful and less portable.

And more importantly, you suffer from *extreme* performance loss
if you try to open every file on a populated directory, especially
in terribly implemented OSes like Windows 9x. Ignoring Microsoft's
cruft, try using a file manager which opens each file of a cdrom
directory or an nfs share. If the file is slow or blocked, the window
manager may even block too, and crash, if not properly designed.

Finally, imagine future kernels like GNU/HURD, where you can have
a translator for a directory mapping to an ftp, and try to traverse
it with such a "smart" file manager, using a slow link.

Of course, don't let that discourage you. Somebody can implement
such beast, but the lack of it in practical environments suggests
that it's not the best option, because it's only usable in very
specific contexts, where file access is fast. And now remember that
KDE/Gnome users alreay consider their desktops slow...
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