[gopher] Item Type Suggestions
JumpJet suggests the following Item Types be standardized:
0 = Plain text file
1 = Directory
2 = Search CSO server (i.e. a qi/ph index)
3 = ERROR
4 = BinHex-format file (i.e. a *.HQX file)
5 = Binary archive file (i.e. a *.ZIP file)
6 = UUencoded-format file
7 = Search server (i.e. a WAIS index)
8 = Telnet as any kind of terminal
9 = Binary file (i.e. a *.EXE file)
d or D = Any kind of Portable Document Format file (i.e. a *.PDF file)
g or G = Any kind of Graphic file (i.e. a *.JPG file)
h or H = HTML file
i or I = Informational text that is displayed (as if it was a normal file name), but does not NECESSARILY link to any actual file.
s or S = Any kind of Sound file (i.e. a *.WAV file)
v or V = Any kind of Video file (i.e. a *.MPG file)
This is pretty much as things are (to maintain compatability with older Gopher Clients and Servers), with the exception of combining "8" and "T", expanding "G" to include old type "I" (image files other than GIF), and adding new types "D" and "V".
Note that letter cases are "neutral", so now type "I" and "i" are BOTH the indicators of an "Informational text".
Modern software has the ability to detect file types and choose an appropriate file viewer. Therefore "Item Types" are of less importance today. Therefore I feel that "Item Types" should be BROADER in their scope, and indicate general file categories only (i.e., s = any kind of Sound file, g = any kind of Graphic file, etc.).
Examples of grouping extensions in a broad Type system might be:
Type 0 = DOC, RTF, TXT (also none or un-specified extensions)
Type 4 = HQX, SEA
Type 5 = ARC, GZ, LHA, LZH, RAR, TAR, TGZ, Z, ZIP
Type 6 = UUE
Type 7 = SRC
Type 9 = COM, DLL, EXE
Type d/D = PDF
Type g/G = BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG
Type h/H = HTM, HTML
Type s/S = AU, MP3, WAV
Type v/V = AVI, MOV, MPG
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