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

[Rick Penticoff <rpenticoff>]

On 01:43 AM 1/20/2003 -0600, Maureen Kelly wrote:

> 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.
Maureen,

I can't think of a reason for why you'd __have__ to change your file 
extensions.  Some people like the convenience of being able to click on a 
filename with a certain extension (.doc, for example) and have the file 
open up automatically in its associated program (MS Word).  This is 
especially handy if people are sending file attachments via email -- you 
can just double-click on the filename in the email and the program opens 
up.  No need to save the attachment first, open up the other program, then 
have to remember where you saved the attachment so you can view it.  As 
long as you don't care about following that Windows-style behavior (or your 
personal extensions don't duplicate an extension "owned" by another program 
on your system), then it shouldn't matter.

But given the way copyright matters are going in the US Congress and US 
Supreme Court these days, maybe the day is not that far off when software 
companies really do __own__ an extension.  And we'll all have to start 
making micropayments to Microsoft every time we open a file with a .doc, 
xls, .ppt, or .mdb extension.  .   .   .

Happy Martin Luther King day to all in the US.

Rick