[Vorbis] .ogg extension and Theora

[Greg Wooledge]

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Message-ID: <20040617231837.GM23020 at griffon>

noprivacy at earthlink.net (noprivacy at earthlink.net) wrote:

> Right.  OGM is just the ogg container with a different extension.  But it's
> been done as only DivX now for quite a while.  I think it's a little late to
> try and put Theora in there in people's mind.

I'm not so sure.  *.avi files can have many different video codecs,
can't they?  The actual codec isn't important when it comes to this issue.
I don't see any reason at all why *.ogm couldn't be used for
Theora-plus-Vorbis as well as DivX-plus-Vorbis and Xvid-plus-Vorbis
(as it is today).

> Yup.  It would be the best solution.
>
> Apps just get programmed for that extra extension.  And since there aren't
> any Theora video player or editing apps yet, it's really no big deal.

No.  You had it right the first time -- it's _not_ about the applications.
It's about the files, and the way human beings relate to them.

If I unpack a source tree, I see *.c files, and *.h files, and *.txt
files, and *.html files, and maybe *.y files or *.cxx files, and so
on.  _I know what every one of these files is_ just by looking at the
name.  I know which ones to read and which ones not to read yet.  When
the compile blows up, I know how to interpret the source code files
based on which language each of them is written in, up to my own
personal limitations in each such language.

When I look at files under my /export/music hierarchy, I see *.mp3
files and *.ogg files and *.flac files.  I know what each of _those_
files is just by looking at the name.  Now, that's not a big deal
because they're under the /export/music directory, so I know they're
music files -- i.e., audio only.  So they all get fed to xmms anyway.

But I also have files that are downloaded by giftd, and they end up in
~gift/.giFT/completed/ -- and they're all mixed in together, regardless
of type.  When I go through that directory to sort things out, I see
*.mp3 files and *.ogg files and *.mpg files and *.avi files and so on.
I know what each of _those_ files is, too, because nobody in their
right _mind_ would share a movie on a P2P network and name it *.ogg.
It's just crazy.  (And if someone did, I'd rename it as soon as I got
around to watching it.)

Being able to tell how to deal with a file, in a qualititave way, by its
name, is _fundamental_ to how people interact with computers.  When I see
*.ogg I know it's an audio file, so I'd use xmms or ogg123 to play it.
If it's a *.mpg file, then I use mplayer.  Seeing a movie labeled *.ogg
would be like seeing a package of hamburger in the vegetable aisle.
It's cognitive dissonance.  It's unnecessarily confusing.

But what we _don't_ need is for Xiph to get involved in this issue (at
least not at this time).  This is between the users and the application
developers.  A standard is going to emerge -- either *.ogm or *.ogv,
would be my guess.  When that standard finally settles down, then
Xiph can advocate it, make the reference encoder generate it, and so on.

--
Greg Wooledge                  |   "Truth belongs to everybody."
greg at wooledge.org              |    - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
http://wooledge.org/~greg/     |

P.S. -- If this makes me an old-school hardcore command line curmudgeon
who just "can't relate" to the new way of using icons instead of names,
and clicking on things to open them in some automatically "associated"
helper application, then so be it.  I don't care.

P.P.S. -- I can write a similar rant about web pages that give you an
HTML page when you "click on" a URL that ends with .tar.gz (*cough*
sourceforge *cough*).  Names are _important_.  Fucking with standard
names makes people confused and angry.  Not all of us use our computers
the way your grandmother does.  Some of us have more than one finger,
and more than just a mouse, and more than one window open at a time.
You've been warned.
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