Date   : Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:35:04 +0100
From   : jumbos.bazzar@... (Mark Haysman)
Subject: Master ethernet upgrade

> They're written to an "inf" file of the same base name.
> So
>  example        FFFF8023 FFFF0E00
> would have a corresponding file
>  example.inf
> containing that data.
>
> The "inf" files are marked as hidden so that viewing from the Windows side
> doesn't clutter the display (and deleted/renamed when the master file is
> deleted/renamed),
> Sprow.

I've always loathed the idea of a separate .INF file for the metadata, even 
if it's hidden. The .inf files can get easily lost if dragged across PC 
windows that don't show hidden files. I know it seems like an accepted norm 
with several other programs doing it, but there must be a better way. I'd 
prefer to see the data stored at the end of a file, along with an identifier 
string, for example...

end of file-!METADATA!FFFF1900FFFF0823

Then the software loading the file reads the size, opens the data, sets the 
pointer to filesize-X bytes and checks for an identifier, if it finds it, 
reads the metadata and loads the file minus the metadata. If it doesn't find 
it, then it has to do without.

I realise this then produces files that are not the same length as the 
original, but if the software used to load and save them adds and removes 
the data automatically, and when copied to an FS that stores it's own data 
(DFS etc), the data is removed, and the file restored to normal by the 
filesystem or utility doing the copying, then it's only ever in the longer 
version with the data on the PC side of things.

Mark.