At 12:03 -0500 8/29/06, Don wrote: There is at least one reason this may not be a mistake in all contexts. If the OS knows something about the files, and about the applications available, it can help me out by connecting the two (or by notifying me that the needed application is not available). That allows me to double-click on a .jpeg file and have a jpeg viewer launched automatically by the OS to open that file. The alternative is of course for me to find my own jpeg viewer, launch it, and then open the same file. The advantages here are that I'll get the *right* jpeg viewer, the OS can be much simpler, and the file can be smaller and named with greater flexibility. File type information could be imbedded in the name (.3), in a "file information" block a la MacOS-Classic, or inside the file itself. I can even imagine an OS with a "guess-the-application" facility, which is actually an application itself that guesses which other application to launch and pass the file to based solely on the file's content or context (though I can imagine that facility failing I think any of these strategies could (and do?) work. I'm not sure that selecting one over the other is a mistake, just a choice adapting the OS to a different function. Some rely more on the user's input, some take more machine resources and are less transportable. -- - Mark Cell Phone: 210-379-4635 office: 210-522-6025