Re: standard file extensions for exported apple dos files ?

[Alex Freed <alex_news@mirrow.com>]

Jonno Downes wrote:
> I'm playing with some code where it will be handy for me to have on a
> modern file system (e.g. ntfs) some files exported from Apple DOS 3.3
> disk images, but I'd like to retain the 'file type' metadata when I do
> that.
>
> More specifically, I want to recognise 1) that the files are Apple 2
> files, and 2) differentiate between Binary files (with the first 4
> bytes being load address and file length), Applesoft files, Text files
> etc.
>
> The only cross-platform place for storing file metadata is in the file
> extension, but there doesn't seem to be any convention or standard
> file extension used for this purpose - BIN and BAS are too generic.
>
> I am considering using .?33, where the first char is the DOS 3.3 file
> type (i.e. a binary file will get saved with extension .B33, an
> Applesoft file will get .A33 etc).
>
> But is anyone aware of unique extensions already being used for this
> purpose?

Yes. CiderPress saves the type and loading address (for binary type) as
a part of the name. If you have a modern file system as opposed to
say MSDOS, the "extension" doesn't have to be a CP/M standard 3 letters.
Even FAT understands long file names these days.

-Alex.