Alfons Adriaensen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Tue, Oct 11, 2005 at 10:12:22AM +0100, Steve Harris wrote: > >> On Mon, Oct 10, 2005 at 08:08:22 -0400, Paul Davis wrote: >> > On Tue, 2005-10-11 at 01:02 +0200, fons adriaensen wrote: >> > > The alternative is of course to have separate WAV files and some >> > > text file for the metadata, and combine all of this into a directory >> > > that would then be handled as a unit. But I'd prefer to have all >> > > data in a single file. >> > >> > tar? (paul runs for cover ...) >> >> Actually a zip file plus manifest (aka jar or mozilla xpi) is an ok >> solution, they can be "mounted" by the application and have files pulled >> out, whereas tar files have to be unpacked to /tmp or similar. > > Reading tar files directly is easy enough - emacs does it for example. > Any libs for jar / xpi ? My main objection to both would probably be that > it's just a bit too easy to create them using 'general' tools only. > I want to avoid incompatible parts being put together accidentally. > That's also the main reason for preferring a single file over a directory.
I dont think you really need worry about accidental errors. Just make the actual format used obscure enough for the average user... I know that .deb packages can be built/extracted using ar since years, but I never really did it if not necessary since the tools available for doing it the proper way are sufficient :-) However, its just cool if you happen to end up in a situation where you need some bits of the data in one of your files, but for some reason or another dont have your application handy on the machine right now. -- CYa, Mario
