Re: [linux-audio-dev] file format

Alfons Adriaensen <fons.adriaensen@email-addr-hidden> writes:

> On Tue, Oct 11, 2005 at 10:12:22AM +0100, Steve Harris wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Oct 10, 2005 at 08:08:22 -0400, Paul Davis wrote:
>> > On Tue, 2005-10-11 at 01:02 +0200, fons adriaensen wrote:
>> > > The alternative is of course to have separate WAV files and some
>> > > text file for the metadata, and combine all of this into a directory
>> > > that would then be handled as a unit. But I'd prefer to have all
>> > > data in a single file.
>> >
>> > tar? (paul runs for cover ...)
>>
>> Actually a zip file plus manifest (aka jar or mozilla xpi) is an ok
>> solution, they can be "mounted" by the application and have files pulled
>> out, whereas tar files have to be unpacked to /tmp or similar.
>
> Reading tar files directly is easy enough - emacs does it for example.
> Any libs for jar / xpi ? My main objection to both would probably be that
> it's just a bit too easy to create them using 'general' tools only.
> I want to avoid incompatible parts being put together accidentally.
> That's also the main reason for preferring a single file over a directory.

I dont think you really need worry about accidental errors. Just
make the actual format used obscure enough for the average user...
I know that .deb packages can be built/extracted using ar since
years, but I never really did it if not necessary since the tools
available for doing it the proper way are sufficient :-)

However, its just cool if you happen to end up in a situation where you
need some bits of the data in one of your files, but for some reason or another
dont have your application handy on the machine right now.

-- 
CYa,
  Mario