Forwarded message:

On Thu, 31 Aug 2000, Andrew Brown wrote:

...

the mime type is made up, usually based on the file's extension, which is, of course, passed along with the contents of the file when you transfer it. it's no extra information in this context.

What's a file extension?

-- Alex Kamantauskas alexk@tugger.net

Depends on what machine you're on. On MS-DOS/Windows, its the last part of the dotted filename, ie junk.txt would be a text file of junk.c would be a C cource file. Most Unix's are the same. The extension is the last component in a period separated name. I believe that on MacOS, BEOS and others, the extension information is stored separately and not part of the name or may optionally be part of the name. That's also how web servers and web browsers know what to do with files that have an html extension. Unfortunatly, if the file being transported by the server or the browser has a 'known' extension, the file will be processed by one or the other or both. Once the file is processed, you can't save a copy that's identical to what was sent. This is particulalry true as extensions do not have to be unique. I've seen two or more applications use the same extension and conflict with one known by a web browser. Click on the link and you can't download the file, you just get junk on the screen. -- Richard Shetron multics@ruserved.com multics@acm.rpi.edu NO UCE What is the Meaning of Life? There is no meaning, It's just a consequence of complex carbon based chemistry; don't worry about it The Super 76, "Free Aspirin and Tender Sympathy", Las Vegas Strip.