[Mac OS X TeX] Excalibur and TeXShop '.tex' files

[Nicholas Matsakis]

> Likewise, for a Mac OS X native application such as Excalibur to be
> dependent on file type metadata is a bad idea, especially when there's
> a common file extension present (.tex).  This should be reported as a
> bug in Excalibur.

This is really a bug in MacOS X!
http://www.petitiononline.com/osxmd/petition.html

Rick said:
> Apple's policy on file types vs. extensions still isn't clear to me.
> Will they be abandoning file types entirely?  Here's how I think I
> will change it.  Excalibur will open a file if it is type 'TEXT' or if
> the file extension is .tex, ltx, or .txt.  Does that seem right?
> Should I be checking for other extensions?

Setting aside my earlier flippancy, Apple _seems_ to be deprecating file
types in deference to file name extensions. Which isn't to say that file
types won't be supported indefinitely, but you should count on less and
less files being tagged with appropriate metadata by their creating
applications, because so far Apple has not gone out of their way to ask
developers to tag these files, nor have they presented a viable
alternative which maintains the functionality of HFS type codes.  But this
is a rant which is off topic for this list.  Your suggestion sounds fine.

Nick Matsakis


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