Ability to alter MIMEMaps file from !Configure

Noticed the other day that the only way to find the MIMEMaps file was to delve into the boot structure and find the !Internet application manually. There is already an ability to bring up the Hosts file from within the Networking section of !Configure. Wouldn’t it also make sense to have quick access to the MIMEMaps file in the same way?

Unless I’m missing something that is…

What’s really needed is an automated merge facility, along the lines of SysMerge. A lot of applications expect you to merge a supplied set of MimeMap entries with your own file, and at present you must do it manually, which is difficult (for most non-technical users), time-consuming and annoying. This would also (hopefully) eliminate the requirement for the above proposal.

Looking at InetDBase:MimeMap on my computer I see that the file starts with a load of comments (lines starting with #) followed by lines that are either blank or start with a letter a-z and finishes with a line starting with an asterisk. Can applications be expected to contain their own file called MimeMap or are they likely to contain mimemap files hidden away elsewhere? If the former, then it would be an easy job to write a sticky so that dragging an application’s MimeMap onto its iconbar icon would merge it with InetDBase:MimeMap. As far as I can see mimefiles contain, apart from comments, just tab-separated records, whose first record is the key for the merge. Is that right?

Can applications be expected to contain their own file called MimeMap

Blech! ALL applications with such mimemap files should have them labelled as documented examples.

Mimemap – think Highlander, think Connor McCloud “There can be only one”

Yes there should be a simple merge system, but while the amendments to things like the Tasks, Lookat elements of boot are being looked at a simple method of commenting out elements of the mimemap entries would be equally useful.

I think you can just # out lines in Mimemap files.

I think you can just # out lines in Mimemap files.

You can, however to quote Gareth:

Noticed the other day that the only way to find the MIMEMaps file was to delve into the boot structure and find the !Internet application manually.

Which rather means the commenting out needs to be easier in terms of access and also means of doing it. Most non-techies like a GUI.

At work I could have left the desktop support guys with a text interface to add new devices to the FreeRADIUS authentication list. What I did do was a bit of PERL cgi tagged into WebMin and they don’t get things wrong, mostly…

Given MIME types are standardised – surely a better approach would be to keep the standard list as complete as possible with OS upgrades, and then keep the file as it is so if you want anything extra you need to know what you’re doing?

Each thing added to Configure makes it harder to find more important stuff – look at Control Panel on Windows or the insanely-tabbed Preferences panels in Office ’97: sometimes more can be less.

Ensuring that BootMerge can effectively merge MimeMaps and add/replace entries as part of a system upgrade would be useful however.

Ensuring that BootMerge can effectively merge MimeMaps and add/replace entries as part of a system upgrade would be useful however.

Yeah… I was thinking along those lines… An applet like “Add to Apps” etc found in the Boot section, but in the Internet section of Networking, as the file in question IS in Resources.!Internet…

Excuse me for not being able to quote correctly here…

Excuse me for not being able to quote correctly here…

Nay problem: just use bq followed by a dot a space and then a blank line after the quote as per the hints item just below the input box (first line of Formatting Help, ref. bold, italics and quotes)

Try !MiMerge from http://www.wra1th.plus.com/zip/MiMerge.zip
but save your InetDBase:MimeMap first, just in case.

Yes, the fields in MimeMap are simply TAB separated, and are described in http://www.riscos.com/support/developers/riscos6/networking/mimemap.html

Tim Hill maintains a pretty comprehensive MimeMap at http://www.timil.com/riscos/mimemap, and Adam Richardson has a checking and merging program called MimeMan at http://www.snowstone.org.uk/riscos/mimeman/
(though my attempts to use it today on Iyonix 5.18 didn’t fully work).

And now Gavin’s MiMerge.

I would be happy for ROOL to host a definitive MimeMap file in CVS that could be updated as needed.

I would be happy for ROOL to host a definitive MimeMap file in CVS that could be updated as needed.

A very good idea. But I suspect it would take some time initially to decide what should be included. Any volunteers?

And the file would need to be made available to download easily by anyone – not just as part of the latest HardDisc.

I vote for FLAC and OGG to be included ;@) but then I am biased!

If a definitive file were to be help on ROOL maybe the merging applications could offer to send new additions missing from it to ROOL for submission?

Any volunteers?

Not sure I’d be competent. What I can say is that I maintain a spreadsheet version of MimeMap for editing, from which I can (fairly) easily create the clean, valid TSV file. I keep Tim Hill’s comments only in a separate copy of his definitive file, though some are advice that needs to be observed when it comes to the order of entries and default filetype assignments for LanMan98.

Anyone want to share more esoteric observations?