Re: Change default MIDI file extension to '.mid'

[David Kastrup]

Davide Liessi <address@hidden> writes:

> Dear all,
>
> many programs that can read MIDI accept both '.mid' and '.midi' as
> file name extension, however many other programs only accept '.mid'.
>
> The only noteworthy reference I could find online is
> http://www.midi.org/aboutmidi/tut_midifiles.php
> where they explicitly say that «the PC file extension for an SMF
> [Standard MIDI File] is .MID» and they never mention '.midi'.

"PC" file extension refers to MSDOS which truncates extensions at three
letters.  .mid happens to be also Map Interchange Data.

But the referenced article also talks repeatedly about "*.mid",
lowercase, without qualifying this as a PC-only feature.  Obviously, at
the point of time most MIDI standards were established, almost all
viable operating systems had file systems with 3-letter extensions (UNIX
with its 14-letter (?) file names was not used for MIDI).

> I think that LilyPond should use the most widely accepted '.mid' as
> default extension for the MIDI files it produces, instead of current
> '.midi'.
>
> What do you think?

Ambivalent at best.  What is the actual problem case we are talking
about?  Which programs are "many other programs", under which systems?

-- 
David Kastrup