Hmm, here are the reasons:
1) It means that all metadata has to be shoe-horned into the filename. The web object model cured this by having headers that express things like Content-Type.
2) Python doesn't allow dots as object ids.
3) It rarely works. For instance, does .doc mean Word6, Word95, Word98, or Word2000? Next, if you define a ZClass for Customer, do you have .cst as the magic ending? .cust? .customer?
Okay, you convinced me. That was a bad idea.
Even worse, how would you edit the arguments list in a SQL method via FTP? Good Question. You could do something similar to HTML. The entire document is a SQL Method document. Then you have a "tag" (similar to head), maybe called ARGS to define the arguments. And use the BODY tag to specify the SQL statement Example: File name: qryGetMembersByGender.smf (smo - SQL Method File) Content:
<!--#args --> gender:string = "f" <!--#/args -->
<!--#body type=sql --> # Having a type allows to use that format with other doc types SELECT * FROM members WHERE gender= <!--sqlvar gender type=string--> <!--#/body -->
Note: I hope my example has the right syntax. I am still a little shaky, since I started coding in DTML last night. :)
Now you're getting closer. Imagine the above as XML. You could encode what kind of thing it is and all the structure for the thing. You could even add/edit a whole bunch at one time.
My friend would agree with you completely (he believes everything should be XML since years). I agree also. That would be really cool to have it all in XML. :) stephan -- Stephan Richter iXL - Software Designer and Engineer