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July 2007
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2007.07.09 16:35 "Re: BigTIFF extension", by Toby Thain
On 9-Jul-07, at 1:25 PM, Gary McGath wrote: > Stephen Carlsen wrote: >> Probably most of the arguments for and against using a different >> extension have now been stated and re-stated.* >> So maybe it would be enlightening to inject a possible compromise >> position into the discussion. I don't love it, but I don't totally >> hate it, either. >> Most of use can use filenames longer than 8.3 these days. So how >> about agreeing on a convention to use a 2-part file extension for >> BigTIFF files: ".x.tif" or some such thing. That way users (and >> tech support people, and developers) have some immediate clue that >> this is a BigTIFF file -- which could save significant tech >> support costs and headaches over the next N years of transition. > > There's no precedent for this in file format extensions, and I > think it's overloading the concept to start devising compound > extensions. Most existing software would simply look at the ".tif" > ending and ignore anything else. > >> * (My own first preference is still to consider these to be 2nd >> Generation TIFF files -- TIFF for a new millenium, if you will -- >> and use a new extension such as ".tf2".) > > I would also prefer a different extension, whatever it might be. > But extensions don't provide a lot of granularity, and can't really > be considered reliable type identifiers. I'd settle for having a > separate MIME type for BigTIFF. There's already one for TIFF-FX > (image/tiff-fx), and BigTIFF arguably deserves it even more. A new MIME-type without a new extension is not very useful? --T > > > > -- > Gary McGath > Digital Library Software Engineer > Harvard University Library Office for Information Systems > http://hul.harvard.edu/~gary/index.html > > _______________________________________________ > Tiff mailing list: Tiff@lists.maptools.org > http://lists.maptools.org/mailman/listinfo/tiff > http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/