[vorbis] File Extension .OGG

[Tom )]

On Thu, Jun 29, 2000 at 11:53:39PM +0800, Angus Griffin wrote:
> Even though this seems a worryingly pointless discussion, I'll put my two
> bob in.
>
> I feel that the .ogg extension is sufficient for BOTH formats, as I assume
> players will be 'expected' to decode both audio and video files... and
that
> they will be part of the same file format. It would be silly to name them
> any differently. And heck, it's a kinda nifty extension anyway, who could
> ask for more?

This is far too optimistic an attitude to take for a fledgling encoding
format.

I assume of course that the developers of the Ogg formats wish to see as
widespread an acceptance of the formats as possible (as do I); if this is
the case, utilizing a single extension for both audio and video files isn't
the wisest of courses.  Already, there have been plugins released for
various audio players to support Vorbis audio files.  If your end users
prefer a particular audio player, and associate the OGG file extension with
that player, what's going to happen when the video format goes live?  You
can hardly expect to write a video plugin for Winamp, for example.  Nor can
you expect them to switch to a "preferred" (i.e. plays both OGG audio and
video) player when they'd rather have plugins for their preexisting favorite
players.

Your end users are by and large going to use an audio player for audio files
and a video player for video; forcing them to choose one or the other to be
properly associated will only frustrate, annoy, and reduce the likelyhood of
Ogg going mainstream.

Tom "Korpios" Tobin
korpios at korpios.com

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