NotaBene Mailing List 2002

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Re: Pitfalls and benefits of personal extensions......was ...NB6.0 File extensions



Not sure any comments I offer can be characterized as "wisdom," but I do have some thoughts:

Like you, for twenty years or so I have used three-letter file extensions to identify the matter the file concerns. Thus, matters concerning a client named Smith might be Letter1.SMI, Letter2.SMI, Memo.SMI, Finalbil.SMI, etc.

It was a practice I began when I was working with an old Kaypro that had two five-and-a-quarter-inch, single-sided low-density floppy disks and no hard drive. Your word processing software AND the files it created were all on the same floppy disk. Then the easiest way to archive -- say -- the "Smith" files was by using a command like "copy a:/*.smi b:/*.smi". (Actually, this was before Dos, using its predecessor CP/M, in which to copy all the Smith files from drive A to drive B the copy command had to be stated backwards: "copy b:/*.smi a:/*smi".)

I guess it is more a matter of habit with me than anything else. Today, one segregates matters by putting their files in separate directories (even that phrase is obsolete; in Windows, one calls them "folders") and there is no need to use file extensions for the purpose. But I still do.

Obviously, there are some combinations to avoid: "tmp" would mark a file for deletion by any of various cleanup utilities, "bas" would suggest a file in basic, and so on. But I have run into no other problems that I can think of. I use Nota Bene and WordPerfect extensively. (You have to argue with WordPerfect a little before you can get it to give up its own preferred extension, but persevere. After all, who's to be in charge here, you or some crummy piece of commercial software?)

I guess I let most other software I use pick its own file extensions, Paradox, Quattro, Palm Desktop, etc. I don't generate enough files in those to worry about.

Like I say, random thoughts.

--Bob Kubie.




At 01:43 AM 1/20/2003 -0600, you wrote:

JP

Thanks for asking:   yes and prompted me to have another question or
two.......I'm do not know how to get to 4DOS or 4NT or to 'shell out to
Dos'.....what I did know to do was to do the following on the command line
(first time I've ever used Dos from NBWin) and did

find *.nts
F10

That resulted in a DOS list of all files with .nts..   From that I assume I
could use the rename command as was suggested on the list, although I have
not yet done that....why?

because now I wonder if I should leave them as is.  Maybe you (or anyone
else on the list) can refresh my thinking about the benefits and pitfalls of
defining my own extensions in terms of the mechanics of the program. What
troubles might this land me in with regard to other NB transactions such as
file conversion for example.

In my Directory/Personal files where I often have continuing correspondence
with a party, I use .001 and 002 and 003 extensions. and this allows me to
isolate all files for that party as I need to using the 8 characters and
resulting in a chronologically ordered set of files.

In my Directory/Professional/files the file names are coded but all limited
to 8 characters.  So notes I take from a book of yours has the file name
earltitl.nts (first four letters of author and first four of title)and is
found in a subdirectory called 'reading notes'.  Notes I take related to
courses I've TA'd or taught and lectures and such are coded to indicate
course and semester or lecturer name, alway limited to 8 characters and
these are found in a subdirectory called 'teaching'

>From my early airline days, before computers,  when our cmx were via hand
keyed telex machines, I developed a coding system I still use
so, I have not drifted away from 8digit filenames into the land of long file
names up to 256...but maybe my tendency to use the extension as an
additional identifier, is not suitable for what I might find down the road
in NB......

So, what wisdom do you have on that....and anyone else on the list
also....thanks much

Maureen
kellybs



----- Original Message -----
From: "Earls, JP" <JEarls>
To: "Multiple recipients of list NOTABENE" <notabene>
Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2003 11:44 AM
Subject: Re: NB6.0 File extensions


> Maureen,
> Did the answers about the extensions make sense?
>
> J. P. Earls, OSB
> St. John' University
> Collegeville, MN  56321
>
> -
>
>
>
>
Robert H. Kubie
Attorney at Law
6315 Waterman Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63130-4708
email: rhkubie
Voice: 314-725-9990
Mobil: 314-757-9990
Fax: 314-725-8579




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