if you could pick a standard format for a purpose what would it be and why?
e.g. flac for lossless audio because…
(yes you can add new categories)
summary:
- photos .jxl
- open domain image data .exr
- videos .av1
- lossless audio .flac
- lossy audio .opus
- subtitles srt/ass
- fonts .otf
- container mkv (doesnt contain .jxl)
- plain text utf-8 (many also say markup but disagree on the implementation)
- documents .odt
- archive files (this one is causing a bloodbath so i picked randomly) .tar.zst
- configuration files toml
- typesetting typst
- interchange format .ora
- models .gltf / .glb
- daw session files .dawproject
- otdr measurement results .xml
Dots yes, nested extensions no.
The expected behavior is: you have a .exe binary called Example.exe. This is an executable.
Now you zip it. It’s no longer an executable binary, it’s a zip archive. Yes, the data can be reconstructed into the original file - but it is not the original file. It should now be called Example.zip, as it is a zip file.
This is important both for user mental models, but also because operating systems that use extensions as the primary indicator of file type often will hide known extensions by default, and the nested extensions in the name can create trouble.
Hiding part of a file name might be the real problem. A
IMG.jpg.exe- would result in a harmless looking JPG, but it isn’t.True. Which is why getting people used to seeing .extension.extension2 is a terrible convention. Call a .zip a .zip, not a .exe.zip.
which will not stop a bad guy form doing so. Therefore dont hide part of a filename and get people used to seeing tar.gz