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A comment on Who invented file extensions in file names?. Parent comment

Re:Who invented file extensions in file names? by leejoramo on Thursday November 02, 2023 @01:11PM (#38116766)
I always liked the Classic macOS way for using "File Type" and "File Creator" meta data. File extensions were not used at the operating system level, but were useful for cross-platform sharing or as away to organize file.

The file icon would be assigned by the "Creator" Application. Double-clicking the file would cause it to be opened by the "Creator". You could choose to open a file with anything that advertised that it could work with a "File Type". There were utilities to change the "File Creator".

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Re:Who invented file extensions in file names? by dheera on Thursday November 02, 2023 @01:38PM (#38117232)
It was also a royal pain in the ass to change the file type should you want to open the same file with another application, edit it, save it, then go back to the 1st application.
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Re:Who invented file extensions in file names? by cm2187 on Thursday November 02, 2023 @01:39PM (#38117258)
And to deal with storage media that don't support that metadata
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Re:Who invented file extensions in file names? by yjftsjthsd-h on Thursday November 02, 2023 @01:51PM (#38117440)
At that point I assume it's easier to open the file from each application rather than the finder. Which I appreciate isn't a great workflow, but probably simpler in that worldview.
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Re:Who invented file extensions in file names? by dheera on Thursday November 02, 2023 @02:24PM (#38117894)
On MacOS of that era, the files didn't even show up in the "Open..." dialogs of those other apps. Many of those apps didn't have a "Show all files" option.
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Re:Who invented file extensions in file names? by yjftsjthsd-h on Thursday November 02, 2023 @02:49PM (#38118244)
Oh, I didn't realize it was that rigid. Yeah, that's an unfortunate system.
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Re:Who invented file extensions in file names? by wizofaus on Thursday November 02, 2023 @03:17PM (#38118595)
Isn't iOS still essentially the same way? It was one reason I stopped using iOS devices as I frequently wanted to open, for instance, pdf or image files from multiple apps.
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Re:Who invented file extensions in file names? by solardev on Friday November 03, 2023 @11:44AM (#38130510)
Does IOS even have a file system? Last time I used it, I had to share files back and forth from one app to others just to open them. It was really annoying...
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Re:Who invented file extensions in file names? by fulltimeloser on Thursday November 02, 2023 @03:40PM (#38118903)
Most programs I used had import and export options for these situations
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