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Comment by crazygringo | Hacker News Reader

Tangentially related: I find it weird that relating file extensions to GUI document icons still doesn't work intuitively.

On my Mac, the document icons for file types still correspond to whatever program I've chosen to open that extension type by default.

Which is so strange -- an .mkv file isn't a VLC document; an .mp4 file isn't a QuickTime document, an .mp3 file isn't an Apple Music document, a .jpg isn't a Preview document, and a .tiff isn't a Photoshop document. What the heck?

I wish the OS would just define reasonable, attractive, default document icons for every standard file type, that applications couldn't control/overwrite. Reserve application-defined document icons just for those apps who truly have their own proprietary file format (e.g. .psd or .docx).

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I always liked the Classic macOS way for using "File Type" and "File Creator" meta data. File extensions were not used at the operating system level, but were useful for cross-platform sharing or as away to organize file.

The file icon would be assigned by the "Creator" Application. Double-clicking the file would cause it to be opened by the "Creator". You could choose to open a file with anything that advertised that it could work with a "File Type". There were utilities to change the "File Creator".

It was also a royal pain in the ass to change the file type should you want to open the same file with another application, edit it, save it, then go back to the 1st application.

And to deal with storage media that don't support that metadata

At that point I assume it's easier to open the file from each application rather than the finder. Which I appreciate isn't a great workflow, but probably simpler in that worldview.

On MacOS of that era, the files didn't even show up in the "Open..." dialogs of those other apps. Many of those apps didn't have a "Show all files" option.

Oh, I didn't realize it was that rigid. Yeah, that's an unfortunate system.

Isn't iOS still essentially the same way? It was one reason I stopped using iOS devices as I frequently wanted to open, for instance, pdf or image files from multiple apps.

Does IOS even have a file system? Last time I used it, I had to share files back and forth from one app to others just to open them. It was really annoying...

Most programs I used had import and export options for these situations

I have the opposite preference... I want to know if my OS is going to open a PDF in Preview or it was hijacked by Adobe again, or if a .cfg file is going to open up in some useless Microsoft System Configuration app, or a JSON file is gonna open up my super bloated IDE instead of a text editor.

It's an additional piece of information, rather than just mirroring what the extension already tells you.

To each their own. I prefer to know which app will open when I double click a file. Seems Apple agrees as that's how it's working on macOS.

100%. Having the icon show what's going to actually open lets me know whether I need to right click and "Open with..."

I'm surprised people are adverse to this on here. Having both the extension and the graphical icon convey the same information is redundant and wasteful.

It's way easier to recognize an icon at a glance, rather than scan the filename to locate and read the extension.

And the application icons are often super ugly, and often don't distinguish between the filetypes anyways.

Honestly, I'd rather do away with default application handlers altogether, if I've got multiple apps installed for a file type. Every time I double-click on a .jpeg, just ask me if I want to open it in Preview or Photoshop. When it's a .pdf, ask me about Acrobat or Preview. When it's an .mp4, ask me about VLC or QuickTime.

I have different reasons for wanting to use a different app each time (do I want to consume or edit, and edit how?), and trying to remember which one is the default handler and when I need to pick the non-default one is cognitive load I don't want to deal with.

Especially since the application-specific icons also sometimes don't even always make it clear which app it is. E.g. the IINA player assigns its own dedicated icons to video files, but you'd never guess that they open IINA.

Just give me standardized icons that are recognizable at a glance, and let me pick the application I want to use at the moment.

That's how it generally works under Linux desktop environments - there are generic icons based on file type no matter what application is used to open them.

> Which is so strange -- an .mkv file isn't a VLC document; an .mp4 file isn't a QuickTime document, an .mp3 file isn't an Apple Music document, a .jpg isn't a Preview document, and a .tiff isn't a Photoshop document. What the heck?

Aren't they? Most of these tools can open many specific types of documents, so you might want to know if a document is a movie or a picture in addition to what program will open it.

And of course there's the issue that Preview is actually an editor.

I share your pain. Luckily there are great apps out there (I use IconChamp[1]) that let you take full control of any given extension's associated icon, among other cool things. If your point is more purely about Apple's stance, then I extend a hearty "hear hear".

[1] https://www.macenhance.com/iconchamp.html

I think it is intuitive, the icon indicates which application you are opening. If I want to know which file type it is, I turn on 'show file extensions'.

Its the same thing on Windows as well, and many Linux desktop environments. Seems to be a universal thing.

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