[vorbis] .ogg file extension for both audio and video?

[Paul E]

Stan Seibert wrote:

>Just to point out, some times this "simple calculation" is more
>complicated than it looks.  Properly detecting MP3s gave me grey hair,
>and the general case of determining whether a given Ogg files should be
>played by a music player (audio only) or a movie player (audio/video) or
>some other player (SMIL stream anyone?) would require a little work.
>
>Not to say this is insurmountable, but it is something to keep in mind
>when designing a file detection system.  In some cases, looking at the
>first dozen bytes is not enough.
>
And what do we really gain by having a program go through the hoopla to 
figure out what app to open the file with?  It just seems like a very 
unneccessary step, with no real benefits.  If anyone can think of some 
real benefits of the switcher app concept I'd love to hear them, because 
I haven't heard any compelling reason to reinvent the wheel.

>This also brings up the question (maybe already posed, I've not been
>reading this thread very closely), what is it you are trying to
>represent with the extension?  What the file IS, or what program the
>file SHOULD BE OPENED WITH?  I suspect that ultimately, the latter is
>what you care about. There is a one-to-one mapping between the two often
>enough that it is easy to confuse the two, though.
>
Shouldn't the extension represent what the file is?  As in audio or 
video?  What if OpenOffice changed it used the same extension for 
spreadsheets, word processing documents, presentations, and drawings.  
You would go crazy looking for a spreadsheet because you wouldn't know 
which were which necessarily.  I don't know about everyone else, but I 
use different programs for audio than video.  I use Winamp or XMMS for 
audio, and I use ZoomPlayer (Win) or Mplayer for video.  They are very 
different to me.  I listen to music while I do something else, but I 
don't necessarily watch movies while I'm working.

Paul

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