File Types and Creator Codes

[J. Landman Gay]

Ray Horsley wrote:
> Very interesting Richard!  Thanks.  I'm finding many files, especially 
> applications, come up empty for the creator and type using either of 
> these methods.  I imagine applications don't have a creator and type but 
> I thought a zip file would.  Maybe I'm wrong.

Windows and Linux don't use creator/type codes, so any files generated 
on those operating systems won't have codes. Snow Leopard ignores 
creator/type codes entirely, so I'm not sure if files generated on that 
OS will have them (I don't have Snow Leopard installed yet.) OS X relies 
more on extensions now, the way Windows and Linux do.

OS X applications that do have type codes will always be of type "APPL". 
The creator code will be unique to the app. They will, however, all have 
file name extensions of ".app". Windows applications will always have 
extensions of ".exe". Linux doesn't require a special extension for 
executables; it looks at the executable flag set on the file.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com