[Maf] File Extension Clashes

[Ramez Labib-Sami]

Greetings Christopher,

Thank you *very much* for an excellent extension. It was the last thing I 
was waiting for to switch completely from IE.

You shouldn't take Mark's remarks personally. The fact is that many in the 
first batch of your users are going to be Windows users: those who use MHTML 
extensively to collect documentation. They will also start using MAF archives.

So, the issue with the MAF extension being "already used" on Windows systems 
is one of "out-of-the-box" usability and interchangeability of collected 
data between users.

What you suggest will lead to different users using different extensions 
adding "friction" in exchanges between users.

Concerning MAF, it is still early enough in the game, now, to pick a 
slightly different extension as the standard extension, say *.MAFF. This 
will be a little trouble for the early adopters but will save headaches for 
thousands of future users.

Don't forget: if Firefox is ever to regain Netscape's former popularity, 
everyday users don't want to deal with "about:config" or similar methods.

Please keep up the good work.

Regards,

Ramez L Sami,
Paris, France
=============================================================================
Christopher Ottley wrote:

> Hey Mark,
> 
> Thanks for your suggestion, but I think it would be a bit odd (and 
> confusing) for my MAF extension to save with anything by default than 
> *.maf. I am not now, nor in the near future planning to change this. I 
> am considering adding a default option for a MAFF (Mozilla Archive 
> Format File) file extension to alleviate those conflicts with Access, 
> but it's not a priority right now. MAF is very flexible as not only does 
> it work with scripts, but most of the settings for how it works are in 
> the preferences. I have docs on the site for all the prefs and how they 
> work, but seeing as I'm not going to implement the MOA extension by 
> default anytime myself, I'll show everyone on this list a neat little 
> trick.
>    In the browser location bar, go to about:config and filter on maf. 
> Right click and create a new string value named "maf.ext.0.mask.2" 
> without the quotes. The value of the string should be "*.moa" without 
> the quotes. Edit the preference "maf.ext.0.masklength" and change its 
> integer value from 2 to 3. Close the browser and open it again. Viola, 
> now you can open and save *.moa files. Associate MOA files with Firefox 
> and you can happily go about your life file extension conflict free.
> 
> Regards,
> Christopher.
> 
> P.s. As an aside, another reason I chose MAF was because in the local 
> Trinidad dialect, to maf something means to take it. :). I found it 
> apropos.
> 
> Mark Cadman wrote:
> 
>> Firstly congratulations on the marvellous extension.
>>
>> My suggestion is to change the file extension of the format from 'maf' 
>> currently used by "Microsoft Access Form Shortcut" 
>> [http://filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=maf] to something else, I 
>> suggest 'moa' (MOzilla Archive) as it appears currently unused 
>> [http://filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=moa]
>>
>> Keep up the good work :)
>>
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