Re: Moving away from app-centric mimetypes (e.g. kword)

On Sunday 12 May 2002 09:01, Friedrich W. H. Kossebau wrote:
> Hello!
>
> Please help me out with an idea that came in my mind a few weeks ago.
>
> I browsed a directory where there were a dozen files all in the format
> of a well known/disliked word processor. They all were presented as of
> the same mime type. But this didn't represent their real state being:
> - letters
> - papers
> - brain drops
> etc.
>
> But I couldn't always guess it from the files' names what kind of
> document they were. So it flashed through my brain:
>
> There has to be more refinement in the representation and handling of
> document files in a file manager!

For some filetypes there are ways of doing this by direct examination of the 
file. As you noted, with koffice documents you can examine the XML. The same 
is true of OpenOffice files. You can examine a LyX or LaTeX file to discover 
the template. Though the format is closed, similar document info is stored in 
MSOffice files.

I'm a little concerned that you're suggesting further categorization using 
the MIMEtype itself. Do we really need to suggest adding hundreds of 
variations to these, since it would have a serious adverse effect on multiple 
platforms and absolutely require a standards committee?  And especially since 
it involves user-defined and arbitrary categories ("brain drops" comes to 
mind). After all, the MIMEtype is intended to describe a file that's 
transmitted (it's a "mail extension") so the receiving machine knows what to 
do with it. No matter how you further categorize the file, the same apps are 
used to handle it. Which means it's not useful for file associations. AND it 
requires that you now associate specific MIMEtypes with specific files (which 
isn't currently done). So now you've got new problems. Where would you store 
it locally? Would this require a change to the filesystem? Or a yet another 
hidden directory? Besides, I might categorize the same files differently.

Nah, I think you should leave the MIMEtypes alone. Better ways to do what 
you're suggesting might involve an improved file preview on the part of KDE, 
and for selected filetypes I wouldn't mind seeing the document properties 
displayed on mouseover. File previews are getting better all the time.

...but let's face it, the "problem" you've discovered isn't much of a 
problem. It's most easily fixed with better directory organization and file 
naming conventions on your own part. Especially better naming. Then you can 
send it to a different platform without loss of information.

-- 
Dave Leigh, Consulting Systems Analyst
Cratchit.org
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