Before Macintosh programs worked by passing a data file name as a parameter to the program you wanted to start or by using an "open" command once you'd started the program. The Macintosh introduced Graphical User Interfaces to the general public and included the ability to click on a file in the file system browser (it introduced the file system browser too) and have that file's associated program launch. It used a filesystem attribute called a resource fork that contained information about the program that created it.
Microsoft Windows before WindowsNT was a graphical shell on their rather minimal MSDOS operating system whose very simple filesystem couldn't handle extended attributes so they based their similar capability on file extensions. Linux has had extended attributes since 2002, but they never really caught on and the XDG MIME database relies on file globs--which for practical purposes means file extensions--to determine what program to launch when a user tries to open a data file. Apple started moving away from resource forks around 2010 and removed Launch Services ability to use them to determine the program around 2012. GnuCash itself doesn't care a bit about what you name your file, but launching GnuCash by double-clicking on a book filename/icon on the desktop or file system browser depends on using the .gnucash extension on all current OSes. To facilitate that working in GnuCash Geert wrote https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=615347 and fixed it with https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/commit/06489439f64b6cf0510828c2907e658ab900c5f7 12 years ago. Regards, John Ralls > On Apr 21, 2022, at 10:56 AM, David Carlson <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Somewhere I lost track of the reasoning to save a file under a filename > without an extension. Since there has never been a standard method to > assign an extended attribute for filetype that, unlike file extensions, is > consistent over all common file storage formats, in my opinion it would > still be very confusing if there were no extensions. As for depending on > the name of the folder for that type of information, I just discovered that > a month ago I misfiled a few PDF's in a folder that is not intended to > contain any such files. I only found them by accident when I was looking > for something else. Oh, remember OS/2 Warp? > > On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 12:26 PM Bert Riding <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Thu, 21 Apr 2022 18:08:47 +0100 >> Chris Green <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 06:54:11PM +0200, Geert Janssens wrote: >>>> Op donderdag 21 april 2022 16:36:36 CEST schreef Bert Riding: >>>>> On Thu, 21 Apr 2022 08:45:20 +0100 >>>>> >>>>> Chris Green <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>>> On Wed, Apr 20, 2022 at 05:54:31PM -0700, john wrote: >>>>>>>> On Apr 20, 2022, at 1:58 AM, Liz <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> On Wed, 20 Apr 2022 09:02:16 +0100 >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Chris Green <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>>>>>> On Tue, Apr 19, 2022 at 09:20:56PM -0400, Derek Atkins >>>>>>>>> wrote: >>>>>>>>>>> 1. Is there any way to get GnuCash to save its file, by >>>>>>>>>>> default, with an appropriate suffix other than >>>>>>>>>>> "gnucash?" >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> Sure, tell it to do that. It only adds ".gnucash" by >>>>>>>>>> default, but it won't override what you tell it. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> Where do you tell it that? >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> "Save As" in the menu should do it. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Be careful to switch back to the "primary" file after doing >>>>>>> that, otherwise the primary will become the snapshot and new >>>>>>> work will go into the new file. >>>>>> >>>>>> But that's the ultimate aim! :- >>>>>> >>>>>> Instead of having the long, clumsy, "gnucash" suffix one wants >>>>>> something tidier like "gc". >>>>>> >>>>>> Remember on Linux the whole filename is always displayed so all >>>>>> those "gnucash" suffixes get a bit wearing after a while. >>>>> >>>>> In my experience gnucash doesn't care what your data file is >>>>> called, with or without any suffix you care to use. Personally I >>>>> use none. Once you have opened the file and gnucash knows of it, >>>>> it will show up in the recents list automatically. >>>> >>>> True. GnuCash doesn't care. However operating system file managers >>>> in general do care. They use the extension to figure out which >>>> application to launch when you double-click a file. But if you >>>> don't use that feature (and many don't with GnuCash as it remembers >>>> which file you last opened) you're ok without file extension. >>> However this all begs the question. *How* do I get GnuCash to save a >>> file without a file extension? As I said back up this thread >>> somewhere it insists on adding ".gnucash" whatever I do to try and >>> discourage it. >>> >>> Are people who say they save without an extension just seeing the >>> Windows default of not showing extensions maybe? >>> >> >> If I need to make a new file, I save it in gnucash and it gets the >> .gnucash extension. I close the file, rename it without an extension, >> then open it by using the Open dialog under File or by directly calling >> gnucash from the command line with the new filename as a parameter. >> >> I use linux/X, YMMV. >> >> -- >> Bert Riding >> [email protected] >> _______________________________________________ >> gnucash-user mailing list >> [email protected] >> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: >> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >> If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see >> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. >> ----- >> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. >> > > > -- > David Carlson > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > [email protected] > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. > ----- > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. 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