Re: save file format

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003, James K. Lowden wrote:

> Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 19:33:40 -0500
> From: James K. Lowden <jklowden@schemamania.org>
> Reply-To: dia-list@gnome.org
> To: dia-list@gnome.org
> Subject: Re: save file format
>
> On Tue, 18 Nov 2003, "Ribeiro, Glauber" <Glauber.Ribeiro@experian.com>
> wrote:
> > I personally think the compression default is good. We could make it
> > clear to the user by displaying in the "save" dialog something like:
> > "dia (gzipped xml) format".
>
> Honestly, I don't know why anyone would be confused:

I hope you are joking and your not just an old school Unix user with a
superiority complex but there are far too many people who are so I cant
asusme you are joking.

I'm familiar with the utility file, but then I'm familiar with apropos
(and I can pronounce it) which is a utility that few seem to have heard
of.

There are more and more Linux users who have not learnt the command line
utilities and to be fair if I had not picked up a few books and had good
people to tell me these commands existed I would never have discoverd them
accidentally.

> $ file Diagram1.dia
> Diagram1.dia: gzip compressed data, from Unix
>
> $ mv Diagram1.dia Diagram1.dia.gz; gunzip Diagram1.dia; file Diagram1.dia
> Diagram1.dia: XML document text

I work with users to whom the command line interface is baffling and
scary.  You must admit that knowing gunzip instead of gzip is a bit
obscure.

> If file(1) knows the answer, why wouldn't anyone else?  I mean, it's
> documented, and is consistent with the rest of Gnome Office.  Clearly,

You are one small step away from saying RTFM and you know how annoying
that is.

> Someone using a unixy OS shouldn't persist in nonunixy thought patterns.
> Suffixes do not a file type make.

This is fundamentally wrongheaded badthink.

The computer must adapt to and serve the user.  I will not become a slave
to technology but I and most people dont have time to learn the inner
workings of everthing we use.  I for one think automatic gears on cars are
a great idea and for most motorists this big simplification is great,
similarly I dont think hiding the complexity in computers is a bad idea
either.

Being forced to use the command line is a failure of Desktop enviroment.
A desktop enviroment should (eventually) provide a point and click way to
do just about anything).

> I don't know if so-called file managers have file(1) intelligence built

some do.

> in, but no matter.  Identifying the file type is not the application's
> responsibility.

If the whole system was smarter then text editing applications would know
they cannot handle binary files and you would be provided with a
hex-editor or the binary would be uncompressed and the textual content
given to you.  Gzipped XML is so standardized it is pretty poor show if a
text editor is not smart enough to automatically handle the compression
for you.

Simply put if the files were not gzipped by default thinks would be even
more obvious and we wouldn't be having this conversation.  The people most
likely to care about compression are just the people most like to be able
to figure out how to get it.

And finally, we are unlikely to change the default from being compressed
anytime soon.  Dia has been using .dia for compressed and uncompressed
files for so long already that we cannot simplify the code and assume
anything based on the file extension will always need to check a .dia file
to see if it is compressed or not, so it is best not to worry about it.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/