I felt compelled to comment, to make sure policy is getting imposed
at the "right" level.
If we don't allow for some 'format discovery' at this level in VisAD,
then (I think you're saying that) users would _have_ to build this type
of knowledge into their code and/or interfaces. Scientists do not
always want or need to be aware of the specifics of their file formats,
and I don't want to ever have to have a GUI gizmo that simply asks
"what is the format of the file" (nor do I want to _have_ to build that
knowledge into each one of my GUIs or apps).
If it is, then dglo's idea (thru extension or magic number) is much
better, IMHO; otherwise, we establish the policy that user-developed
code _must_ explicitly account for file format. With his suggestion,
"must" becomes "can"... a much better philosophy...
Please enlighten me if I've totally missed the boat on this issue...
tom
--
Tom Whittaker tomw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Space Science and Engineering Center University of Wisconsin-Madison
Phone/VoiceMail: 608/262-2759 Fax: 608/263-6738
