[vorbis] File Extension .OGG

[Thomas Marshall Eubanks]

Tom \"Korpios\" Tobin wrote:

> > > FWIW, I strongly agree with Tom Tobin here. ".ogg" should mean one
> > > thing (presumably audio), and there should be another (I suggest ".vog")
> > > for video files.
> >
> > This is what Microsoft did with RIFF waveforms (.WAV) and RIFF video
> > (.AVI)  Personally I'd prefer a .RIFF on both of them.  My vote, for what
> > it counts, goes to just .ogg for whatever data is framed with ogg.
> >
> > Tony Arcieri
>
> But don't you see?  Users have *audio players* associated with WAV files,
> and *video players* associated with AVI files.  If both were RIFF, two
> negatives would result:
>
> 1) Users would only be able to properly associate one case (all RIFF's with
> their preferred audio player, for example, forcing them to open all video
> RIFF's by hand in the video player); and
> 2) Users could not easily differentiate between filetypes in a quick
> filesystem scan or network search.
>
> Simply because one prefers the aesthetics of a unified filename does not
> make it the most practical case.  Windows users, especially, rely heavily on
> filetype associations -- and these are the very same users who make up a
> large part of the current MP3 userbase.  How do you think they would fare if
> both MPEG audio and MPEG video used an MPG extension?  Do you think they
> would enjoy trying to open a movie only to have Winamp report "Unknown file
> type," for example?
>
> We have to deal with the *practical* situation at hand here.  Having
> separate filename extensions for audio and video meets this demand, and
> ensures Ogg will not be bogged down by issues such as the aforementioned in
> the future.
>
> I will say this in closing: there's a *reason* MPEG and RIFF files don't use
> the same filename extension for both audio and video.
>
> Tom "Korpios" Tobin
> korpios at korpios.com
>
>

Hello All;

I think that Tom put things very cogently. THIS IS REALLY FOR PEOPLE, NOT
COMPUTERS. If I se a directory full of files named *.pdf, I think one thing, if I see
*.doc, I think another. Yes, the acrobat reader (say) can figure out which is really a PDF,
but its convenient for ME to have this indication.

Consider this - suppose you get a .ogg file and try and play it and get an "unknown file type"
error as Tom indicated above. Is this a video file ? A mislabeled MP3 or other file ? A corrupt
audio file ? This is frustrating. The vorbis system should try and adopt design decisions that
minimize frustrations; they hinder acceptance.

This is an open source project. Nothing can be really decreed, just suggested. I predict
that if you keep to only one extension, that people will start to make up their own extensions
to make these distinctions, and the benefits of standardization will be lost.

Thanks for your time in reading this; I've said too much and will be silent on the
subject henceforth.


--
                                 Regards
                                 Marshall Eubanks

T.M. Eubanks
Multicast Technologies, Inc
10301 Democracy Lane, Suite 410
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
Phone : 703-293-9624
Fax     : 703-293-9609
e-mail : tme at 21rst-century.com     tme at multicasttech.com

--- >8 ----
List archives:  http://www.xiph.org/archives/
Ogg project homepage: http://www.xiph.org/ogg/
To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'vorbis-request at xiph.org'
containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body.  No subject is needed.
Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.