[Coco] Re: File extensions, was: Re: Portal-9 bug report

[Dennis Bathory-Kitsz]

At 08:55 AM 10/19/04 +0200, Torsten Dittel wrote:
>I don't agree with having no extensions on Windoze would be a good idea.

I always use extensions, since it's a reasonably trustworthy way to work
with material -- plus it's very handy for changing the association quickly,
such as an HTML file touchup in Notepad without accidentally launching it,
opening a Mac file to see what it is, opening an email in an HTML editor,
associating posted data (.att) with a text editor, etc.

I'm not defending the process of hiding extensions, only the
*reasonableness of the choice made* given the expectations and the era and
the marketing needs -- we were only a few years out of the CLI days, and
shaking off that geek-oriented interface was absolutely crucial to sales.
In such terms (including pre-installed, full versions, and upgrages)
Windows 95 was the single most successful operating system in history. The
correct choices *were* made for the general public at the time. (This
article is interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_95)

The decision made to hide extensions (as well as use shortcuts/icons to
stand in the place of text names) was a very good consumer choice, and
still is. MS did not change the file system to do away with extensions or
adopt some other method of identifying the file type, so they met the needs
of the old school or tech-oriented among us. (And the vestigial element
ended up having some value in a virus-infested Internet.)

Streamlining a user interface (software or hardware) is enormously helpful.
Just look the iPod's success. It had no more going for it than its portable
predecessors, but did have great marketing, viral marketing. Do average
folks care that it has restricted usage and IP locks? Or even that it is a
computer disguised as a Walkman?

Indeed, computer "stuff" is hidden from us in computers we use every day,
whether microwaves or automobiles or washing machines or telephones or
coffee grinders or electric shavers or wristwatches. (I bet I can guess
someone's age by their reaction to that sentence.)

As computer knowledge reverts to experts once again (something I fought
hard against, and was my very purpose in publishing articles and books and
even starting my company years ago), people happily give up knowledge for
convenience. When was the last time you used your slide rule? I *like* a
mouse and tablet and trackball (all three of which are on this machine),
but I'm also a heavy keyboard user for most tasks that don't involve
graphics manipulation. That's my heritage as a 13-year-old in summer typing
school in 1962 and typing college papers and then using an IBM Selectric
Composer and then the Model I and then the CoCo -- yes, I'm a fast touch
typist, probably from the last generation of them. (And I hope I live long
enough to experience neural implants so I can read and write and speak
languages I've struggled unsuccessfully to learn.)

No, I don't care about a lot of the changes, and find some of them (such as
icons) entirely neutral to how I work. But without these changes, computers
would still be large, heavy, hard-to-configure, professional or hobbyist
machines, and would not have changed how we communicate, do research, work,
find/enjoy entertainment, and even *think*.

It's almost irocnic that the CoCo was a step along this process of change.

(Sorry that's so far from just talking about file extensions, but the
implications of something simple can occasionally be profound.)

Dennis

PS to Torsten: As for the NL, I expect to be there in the spring for a
little while, probably in Utrecht. I had to bypass this time, flying
directly to Frankfurt and then onward to Slovakia.