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Groups > comp.lang.java.programmer > #19864

Re: A proposal to handle file encodings

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On Thu, 22 Nov 2012 19:47:09 -0800, markspace <-@.> wrote, quoted or
indirectly quoted someone who said :

>Each single Jar file is actually composed of many pieces of information. 
>  Class files, resources, libraries, the manifest file, etc.  And yet 
>it's all encoded into a single physical file.  You never loose pieces of 
>the file just because you made a copy of the file.  You never have to 
>worry about the meta data changing on a new system just because it's *new*.

Yes, yes! The OS people have proved incompetent at keeping metadata
separately from the file. We need formats where the metadata is part
of the file.  With text files the most important piece of metadata is
the encoding. We do it sometimes, jpg, jar, csv (sometimes), video
files, 

More generally the mime type is something you should be able to get
with File.getMime()

Imagine if you could do:

File.getEncoding()
File.getVersion()
File.getCopyrightOwner()
File.getCopyrightDate()

Meta data-compliant file would look just like any other but with a
header of the form
0 <meta>...</meta> 0

The meta data could be stored as XML. That gives you ability to add
extra info without having to change the standard.

the header is in ASCII 7-bit.


We should be using somewhat more complicated formats for files with
embedded metadata.

As an application programmer you want to be able to have the system
parse it for you. You get to pretend it is not there, but with the
ability to query it.

This reminds me a bit of the innovation of  ANSI labelled mag tapes
back in the 60s.

The bBase people got this right long ago.  You don't go writing files
without a header describing the format of what was in the file.
 

-- 
Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products http://mindprod.com
Students who hire or con others to do their homework are as foolish 
as couch potatoes who hire others to go to the gym for them. 

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Thread

A proposal to handle file encodings Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-11-22 13:36 -0800
  Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Joerg Meier <joergmmeier@arcor.de> - 2012-11-22 23:36 +0100
  Re: A proposal to handle file encodings markspace <-@.> - 2012-11-22 17:20 -0800
  Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-11-22 20:25 -0500
    Re: A proposal to handle file encodings markspace <-@.> - 2012-11-22 19:47 -0800
      Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-11-22 21:28 -0800
        Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-11-24 15:51 +0000
          Re: A proposal to handle file encodings "Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> - 2012-11-25 10:18 +0100
            Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-11-25 18:05 +0000
              Re: A proposal to handle file encodings "Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> - 2012-11-27 19:51 +0100
                Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-11-29 02:22 +0000
                Re: A proposal to handle file encodings "Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> - 2012-12-02 13:02 +0100
                Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-12-02 19:36 +0000
                Re: A proposal to handle file encodings "Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> - 2012-12-02 23:52 +0100
                Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-12-02 23:08 +0000
    Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Sven Köhler <remove-sven.koehler@gmail.com> - 2012-11-25 13:13 +0100
      Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-11-25 18:07 +0000
  Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Jan Burse <janburse@fastmail.fm> - 2012-11-23 16:33 +0100
    Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-11-23 09:02 -0800
      Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Jan Burse <janburse@fastmail.fm> - 2012-11-23 19:21 +0100
        Re: A proposal to handle file encodings "Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> - 2012-11-24 00:11 +0100
          Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Jan Burse <janburse@fastmail.fm> - 2012-11-24 00:53 +0100
            Re: A proposal to handle file encodings "Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> - 2012-11-24 09:13 +0100
            Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-11-24 06:50 -0800
              Re: A proposal to handle file encodings "Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> - 2012-11-25 10:07 +0100
                Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2012-11-25 11:06 -0600
                Re: A proposal to handle file encodings "Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> - 2012-11-27 19:28 +0100
          Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-11-24 06:42 -0800
            Re: A proposal to handle file encodings "Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> - 2012-11-25 09:57 +0100
          Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Sven Köhler <remove-sven.koehler@gmail.com> - 2012-11-25 15:09 +0100
        Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Sven Köhler <remove-sven.koehler@gmail.com> - 2012-11-25 15:06 +0100
      Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2012-11-23 16:43 -0600
        Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Jan Burse <janburse@fastmail.fm> - 2012-11-24 01:02 +0100
      Re: A proposal to handle file encodings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-11-25 14:36 -0600
        Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2012-11-25 16:51 -0600
          Re: A proposal to handle file encodings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-11-25 17:54 -0600
          Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Jan Burse <janburse@fastmail.fm> - 2012-11-26 02:03 +0100
            Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Jan Burse <janburse@fastmail.fm> - 2012-11-26 02:20 +0100
              Re: A proposal to handle file encodings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-11-26 02:46 +0000

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