Re: [Alephmodular-devel] Input architecture (ActionFlags)

[Timothy C. <tco...@ha...>]

>>> Given the importance of this, I want more detail than this. This 
>>> cannot be a "magic happens here." I want to know *how* you determine 
>>> it to be what kind of film file it is.
>>
>> Right, Tim is right on, sorry I thought it was pretty clear how it 
>> would work out.
>
> I know I'm being a pest about it.  But no one (myself included) seems 
> to have explicitly jotted anything down in terms of mixed file support 
> Replays are just one case.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean.  It seems to me that the headers I 
mentioned should work with *any* file type we create.  I admit I don't 
know much about the file types, or how to determine what type a file is 
without a header (beyond extension or type/creator codes), but a file 
header could be something like this:

File type code (probably 4-char code, like we've always had)
File version (a number, probably corresponding to the version of AM)
**Not sure what we'd need after this, but maybe any or all of these 
would be useful:
Size of file
# of records
Length of record
Locations of records in file

There might be more useful stuff that could go in a header.  It's 
particularly useful if you set a fixed size for the header (padding 
with 0s where necessary); then you can just look at the first X bytes 
in the file and see if it looks familiar.

Timothy Collett

"There is a theory that states that if ever anyone discovers what the 
Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be 
replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is 
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