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At 8:45 AM -0500 11/21/03, Edward Becker wrote:
As an addendum, although it's correct that a Mac doesn't care what name you use for a file it does have its own way of identifying what type a file is.
Yes and no.
In Mac OS 9, the type of a file was determined by external metadata (called Finder Info). However, while Mac OS X continues to support this mechanism, it ALSO uses a Windows/Unix-like system of file name exstensions and MIME-typing.
There is a data-fork file and a resource-fork file that is invisible and not created when you save a file on a PC.
Forks aren't separate files, they are separate forks - hence the name. But yes, the Mac OS HFS/HFS+ file system supports multiple forks...AS DOES NTFS on Windows.
If the file is showing up as a plain text, or generic file on you Mac, it means that even though the file is a PDF and is a cross platform file format, the Mac can't recognize it without the fork files.
This is a common misconception.
The "Finder Info" is NOT associated with the forks of a file - it lives elsewhere on the user's disk - hence part of the reason for formats such as MacBinary and BinHex.
Leonard -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leonard Rosenthol <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Chief Technical Officer <http://www.pdfsages.com> PDF Sages, Inc. 215-629-3700 (voice) 215-629-0789 (fax)
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