Error in docs about "file creation date"

[Wilhelm Sanke]

Jacqueline Landman Gay wrote:  

> Wilhelm Sanke wrote:
> > I repeat my recommendation to add the ability to read EXIF data with 
> the
> > detailed files function:
>
> I don't know if I'd like that. To read the EXIF data, every file would
> have to be opened and read individually, which would be very
> time-consuming. As it is now, a single call to the OS returns all the
> information without having to open (or even acknowledge) any files at
> all. Reading a lot of files in a folder, just to see if they have EXIF
> data, and if so, retrieve that data, would really slow down the detailed
> files function for people who aren't working with image files.
>
> -- 
> Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
> HyperActive Software         


and Jim Ault from sunny Las Vegas wrote:

> And beyond that, EXIF data is not part of all image files, mostly only 
> those
> files from a device such as a camera.
>
> If you have iPhoto open, you can use AppleScript to tell iPhoto to return
> the EXIF data in an image file in its library.  The same will work for
> Photoshop and Graphic Converter.  I don't believe the OSX Finder app will
> read this part of an image file, and the Rev 'detailed files' returns info
> by asking the Finder to get it.  I could be wrong about this.  Try it and
> see.

These are indeed valid arguments that have to be considered .

As far as I know, however, the situation may be at least different for 
Windows and MacOS. I do not know if the OSX finder could access EXIF 
data automatically, but WindowsXP surely does.

The EXIF creation date of a camera image is automatically read by 
WindowsXP, as can be seen in the file information when you configure the 
folder setting accordingly. So there would be no slowdown of any kind 
when incorporating this information in the detailed files.
I am not really sure what the OSX finder does. If in fact it should be 
able to access such data, then I would repeat my recommendation for the 
detailed files.

If not, then - as the main purpose of this discussion was about 
including valid creation date information  in Metacard/Revolution 
applications - we should tweak Alex Tweedly's "libEXIF" stack to produce 
a handy function to include a reliable creation date information  in our 
stacks if needed.

Regards,

Wilhelm Sanke

<http://www.sanke.org/MetaMedia>