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APPENDIX

Bibliography
Glossary
File formats

File formats and associated software

These tables list some common file formats and software which will handle them (though it may not be the only software which can be used).

Compressed and encoded files

File extension

Definition

How to process

.exe

Self-extracting archive for PCs

No additional software needed on a PC

.gz

Gnu version of zip used on Unix

Use unzip on Unix, MacGZip on Mac, Stuffit Expander for Windows on PC Windows

.hqx

Macintosh BinHex file encoded as text

Use Xbin on Unix, Stuffit Expander on Mac, BinHex13 on PC Windows

.sit

Macintosh archiving and compression format

Use Stuffit 1.51 on Unix, Stuffit Expander on Mac, Stuffit Expander for Windows on PC Windows

.tar

Unix archive format. Tar files may also be compressed

On Unix use command: tar-xf, TAR 4.0b on Mac, WinZIP on PC Windows

.uu or .uue

File converted to text format using uuencode

To convert back to original form, use command uudecode on Unix, uuLite 3.0 on Mac, WinCode on PC. If transferred by email, mail program may handle conversion automatically

.Z

Unix compressed file

To expand, use command uncompress on Unix if not done automatically by ftp program, Stuffit Expander with Expander Enhancer on Mac, WinZIP on PC Windows

.zip

pkzip PC compressed file

To expand, use Stuffit Expander w/EE on Mac, WinZIP on PC

Formatted document types
.doc Common PC format for formatted text files Microsoft Word, WordPerfect for Windows, Wordview.
.pdf Portable Document Format from Adobe, portable across computing platforms. Adobe's Acrobat Reader is needed to read pdf files.
.ps PostScript. Postscript files includes formatting information primarily for printing to a Postscript printer May be viewed with Ghostscript for Mac, Windows, and Unix.
.rtf Rich Text Format - ASCII rendering of binary word-processed documents. Programs such as Microsoft Word will convert to and from rtf files.

Graphics and multimedia file types
.aiff Sound format for Apple Mac. Files are downloaded then played locally. Playable with LiveAudio plug-in which comes with Netscape Navigator 3.0 and higher. Playable in Internet Explorer 3.0+. Also Sound App (Mac) from http://download.com/ .
.asf ASF (Advanced Streaming Format) is Microsoft's streaming format. Can include audio, video, scripts, ActiveX controls, and HTML documents. Windows Media Player (included with Windows 98).
.au Sound format for Unix. Files are downloaded then played locally. Supports 8-bit sound only. Playable with LiveAudio plug-in which comes with Netscape Navigator 3.0 and higher. Internet Explorer 3.0+ supports .au MIME type.
.avi AVI (audio/video interleaved), video file-type used by Video for Windows, Win '95's multimedia architecture Windows Media Player. Allows easy integration of Win Word documents and PowerPoint.
.dcr Macromedia Director Windows Media Player. Allows easy integration of Win Word documents and PowerPoint.
.gif Graphics compression format from Compuserve most suitable for line-art images. Viewable with Web browser or LView Pro (PC) or Gif Converter (Mac).
.jpeg Compression standard particularly suitable for photographic images. Viewable with graphical Web browser, also Lview Pro and PolyView.
.mid, .midi Actually a music definition language and communications protocol rather than a format, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) contains instructions to perform particular commands

LiveAudio plug-in for Netscape. Automatically playable with sound-enabled versions of Internet Explorer or with Media Player.  Also Crescendo!, Yamaha's MIDPLUG. Midi players listed at

http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/midi/help/midi-players.html
.mov Format for QuickTime movies. Sparkle, MoviePlayer (Mac), QuickTime for Windows.
.mpeg
.mpg		 (Motion Picture Experts Group). Widely used standard for digital compresssion of moving images. Files are played locally. MPEG viewers such as MPEGPlay, mtv-1.0, mtvp-sdk, QuickTime MPEG extension, HyperMPEG Player, XingMPEG Player (Windows), Sparkle (Mac). See a list of resources at MPEG.OR at http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/MPEG-content.html for extensive list of pointers.
.MP3 MPEG Audio Layer 3. Advanced compression technique for small near-CD-quality audio files Windows Media Player, Sonique.
.png PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is an extensible file format for raster images intended as a patent-free replacement for the GIF format. Supported by Internet Explorer 4.
.qt QuickTime movie file type from Apple - files are played locally. Playable with QuickTime players such as Quicktime for Windows. Player is included in Netscape Navigator 3.0+.
.qt3 QuickTime 3 - advanced compression format for video, audio, MIDI, animation, 3D, etc. Playable with QuickTime players.
.ra, .rm, .ram Real Audio, pioneering format for streaming audio on the Web optimised for low-to-medium speed connections. RealPlayer, Windows Media Player
.rv Real Video, format for streaming video on the Web optimised for low-to-medium speed connections. RealPlayer, Windows Media Player
.swf ShockWave Flash from Macromedia for delivery of graphics and animation on the Internet. ShockWave, Flash player.
.tiff High-resolution image format JPEGView (Mac) Lview Pro (PC)
.viv VIVO format for compression of streaming video, particularly over low bandwidth. http://www.vivo.com/
.vrml VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language), is an open standard for the definition of 3-dimensional environments used on the WWW. Simple VRML files can be created with a plain text editor, or for more complex model building, modelling software will probably be required. VRML files are viewed with a VRML helper application or browser plugin such as WorldView.
.wav Windows sound format Playable with LiveAudio plug-in which comes with Netscape Navigator 3.0 and higher. Playable in Internet Explorer 3.0. Also with Windows Media Player (included with Windows 98).

References

 

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Last modified: Monday, 24-May-1999 18:49:55 MET DST