.pnd files did these have to get registered?


Halcyon

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Just a question out of curiosity, there are i'm guessing 36^3 options for file extensions .exe .mp3 .pnd but how did the devolpers of Pandora decide on .pnd I mean it seems logical enough short hand for Pandora but did they have to register this anywhere? Like lets say i decide that I want to make a software program called Pwned where you can put a picture of anyone or anything and it modifies the image to show some major Pwnage (what ever that might turn out to be...)


When the program is done it creates a .pnd file


Still following my long winded example? who is to say you cannot use .pnd files for your program they are used by some other program that all ready exists... Or does it matter?


Sorry pretty stupid question i know but I kind of wonder about things like this.
 
Doesn't matter, you can use whatever file extension you want. They're just there to assist the OS to decide what to open the file with.
 
There is no official registry of any file type.. it's just what people / corporations been using and kept it standard..
 
I wouldn't suggest using PND anyway, to many people that will always mean postnatal depression!
 
In addition to being the Pandora's executable format, it is also Pegasus Mail connection information file, Plain Sight Systems Hyperspectral data files (for which I couldn't find a link to), and DATAIR Pension System pending file.


Hit up FileExt and pick any letter. You'll find dozens of extensions used by multiple programs. Not much you can do about it. There's a few standard extensions, but outside of those standards everyone just uses whatever they want, and even inside of those sometimes a program will reuse anyway.
 
A rose by any other name is just as sweet; exensions are just for classification.
 
Thank you kindly for clearing that up. Quick follow up question, is there a limit to how many or how few letters or numbers you need as file suffix


on my example about the stupid picture program i would make, could i have the extension be .31415926535 did the industry just kind of settle in on 3 as a good number of characters?
 
.mpeg? .jpeg? .html? .class? .torrent? .crdownload? see where im going with this? 3 isnt a limit
 
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It was, back when Microsoft built operating system om DOS (well, they did find a work-around in the 9x seriies), that limited filenames to 8.3.


It wasn't a standard, everybody just started using 8.3 filenames to keep compatible with Microsofts crap.
 
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Far out, sounds good to me. So it seems like the extension has little meaning. Is there a reason for having different types then? Or is it just a handy way for humans to quickly try to figure out what they are looking at. Is it possible to have more then one suffix to a file. example.1.A1?


I hope im not coming across as really stupid or frustrating but i kind of like knowing the history of conventions.


Thanks to anyone who has contributed thus far to help me understand this.
 
File extensions are really just a small help for recognising the format or for handling redefined file formats (e.g. ODT documents are just zip files, the extensions is just supposed to tell the system that this ain't an ordinary zip file), Windows is the only system I know that actually can't do anything without them. Anything can be a file extensions as far as it has a dot before it, even Windows allows extensions with more than one part, on Unix systems they have been used for a long time, e.g. for compressed tarballs (.tar.gz, .tar.bz2,...).


Most file formats have a magic number that allows an extension-less but still rather easy way of recognising the file format.


Therefore if you are on an Unix system and you have a file that has a magic number, you can give it any extension you like (except those override-by-extensions ones like .odt, if they are defined on the system) and the system will still know what file format it is and will open it with the correct associated program.


Because of that Unix systems usually don't use the extensions to name formats, they use MIME-types instead.
 
Ok, that depleates all the questions i think i can have about file extensions. Thank you kindly forum members! :D


If you ever have some questions pertaining to sleeping on a couch or standing in a check out line at the market, I can get you the raw truth. :p
 
challange accepted....how do i sleep on a couch thats shorter then me in a way that my back doesnt hurt when i wake up?
 
challange accepted....how do i sleep on a couch thats shorter then me in a way that my back doesnt hurt when i wake up?


LOL You got only one chance you have to prop up the cushions so that you get kind of an incline on the outsides of the couch. Thus making a "hammock" of sorts with the butt down and the head and legs up at angles, in the business we call this maneuver a "Crazy flying V" :p


Next option would be to sleep long enough until medical science can cure all back aches!


Happy dreaming! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................
 
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