Re: Suggestion for file type detection approach

[Fabio Gomes <bugtraq gs2 com br>]

Em Sex, 2003-12-26 ās 12:24, Christophe Fergeau escreveu:

> The users targetted by GNOME won't have any clue how to fix a misdetection of 
> the mime type of a file whatever the mime type detection scheme is (by 
> extension or mime-sniffing). They'll know about "files created by the 
> spreadsheet app", they can't be expected to know they are gnumeric files 
> which should have a .gnumeric extension for Nautilus to properly open them.
> So the "file extension detection misbehaviour is more easily fixed than 
> sniffing misbehaviour" isn't a really good argument in favour of file name 
> matching to my eyes.

I am myself a user targetted by GNOME. I can't fix misdetection by
content, but I can easily rename a file.

Less experienced users cannot fix misdetection problems, regardless of
the detection method used, as you said.

In this case, if detection by suffix is used, they can contact their
technical support or ask their experienced colleague, who can say "You
must rename the file".

In contrast, if detection by content is used, the technical support or
the experienced colleague will just say "Unfortunately, there's nothing
I can do. You need a programmer to fix the file manager".

If suffix matching is adopted and a file has a wrong suffix, it's a
problem of the file. Not of the system. It's insane to fix the system
when the problem is in the file.

The dialog box I proposed focuses exactly on this issue. The system
would offer an option to fix the file name.

-- 
Fabio Gomes de Souza <fabio gs2 com br> (+55 81 9127-0597)

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