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

[Arthur Flexser]

On Tue, 19 Oct 2004, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:

> 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. 

I'd disagree with the "still is" claim, in today's virus-infested environment.
Extensions shown should be the Windows default, with hiding as an option.  I
cannot imagine that anyone nowadays would be deterred from buying a Windows
computer simply on this account. Someone that clueless wouldn't know how to
display a directory of filenames in the store anyways.

Art