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Filename Extensions and EZ
What are filename extensions
A filename extension is a string of characters added to the end of a filename, usually to help specify what kind of information the file contains, or to distinguish different versions of a file with the same name. Here are some examples of filenames, with the extensions in bold:
english.paper
program.c
worldmap.fi
report.version1
report.version2
Note that by convention a period (.) separates the extension from the rest of the file name.
You can use extensions in any way that you find helpful in organizing your files, but there are a few things you should keep in mind:
1) There are a number of extensions that EZ interprets in a special way. See the next section to learn how.
2) To avoid confusion, you should not use certain characters (such as * or /) in filenames or extensions. See the ez help file for a list of the characters to be avoided.
Using special extensions in EZ
Extensions have a special role in EZ, related to EZ's ability to edit information in many different formats (text, pictures, tables, equations and so on). If you use one of a set of special pre-defined extensions in the command
ez filename.extension
EZ will provide you with one of its many different editing packages, called insets , each of which is appropriate to a different kind of information. The more commonly used extensions include
.eq which creates an eq document, for formatting equations.
.table which creates a table document, for tables and spreadsheets.
.raster which creates a raster document, for digitized pictures.
.fi which creates afigure document, for line drawings.
You can see a complete list of the special extensions by looking at the global or site initfile file for your site.
For more information about how to interpret the entries in initfiles file, and how to create your own extension-to-inset mappings, see the initfiles help document.
In addition to the extensions mapped to insets, there are extensions mapped to templates, which go with text insets. These templates provide special styles or pre-set text layout (for memos or help documents, for example). These extensions are also listed in global.ezinit.
You may wish to consult the insets help document for more information about the insets currently available on Andrew, and the templates help document for more information on templates.
The actual order of events in the interpretation of EZ file extensions is as follows. When EZ sees a filename extension, it first checks to see if the document has a "top-level" inset that defines what kind of information the document contains. If it does, EZ loads the inset and displays the file for you to edit. If EZ does not see an inset reference (because you are creating a new file, say), it looks at the file's extension to determine which inset to load. If it sees one of the special extensions listed in the global.ezinit, EZ will create provide the appropriate inset (and template, if called for).
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