FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] File format support in Haiku

[Ar18@xxxxxxxxxxx]

The Problem:
Currently, when you want to open, convert, or create a particular file, you 
must find the program that has the ability to open or save that particular file 
type.  This is further complicated by the fact that the particular program, 
like an image editor (designed to manipulate bitmaps) often does not have the 
capability to handle all the various formats that are available.  The problem 
thus requires installing and using additional programs in order to accomplish 
the simple task of opening, converting, or saving a particular file type.
This method is neither productive for the professional, nor helpful to the 
beginner.
Summary:
In the spirit of "It should just work," we should offload the ability to handle 
file formats from the program to the OS itself.  Thus, introduce the ability 
for Haiku to natively handle various file formats.
Details:
The actual details of how to implement this are left up to those who know how 
to do this best.  Possibility include developing an API that must be included 
in any Haiku program that wants the ability; another possibility includes 
adding the feature to the file system itself.
Anyways, to gain a basic idea of how this system might work, it may be best to 
actually divide file types into categories such as:
video
audio
bitmap
vector
text
word processing
etc...
As you may notice, these categories are closely aligned with the various types 
of programs that are on the market (bitmap image editors, vector image editors, 
word processors, video players, etc...).  Each of these categories usually 
consists of a number of different file formats:
video - (wmv, avi, mov, qt, rt)
audio - (mp3, ogg, wav)
bitmap - (bmp, tiff, gif, png, jpg)
vector - (svg, )

A likely way for the system to work would be for a program to request a 
particular category of file type, and the OS handle the conversion process.
For example, an image editor would request information in raw bitmap format.  
The OS would then be able to process the varoius bitmap files that is supports 
(bmp, png, gif, etc...) and serve it up to the application.

This is, of couse, a very simplistic approach to the issue.  There are actually 
many issues to consider in the process:
....  I won't include all that in this email ...
anyways, would any developers like to discuss this issue via email or chat via 
AIM or MSN?