Apple II
File Type Notes
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                                                  Developer Technical Support

File Type:         $00 (0)
Auxiliary Type:    All

Full Name:     Typeless file
Short Name:    Unknown

Written by:    Matt Deatherage                                     March 1990

Files of this type and auxiliary type contain data that is unknown to the 
file's creator.
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Files of type $00 contain data that is unknown to the program that creates the 
file.  There are instances where programs, especially utilities, have to 
create files before they know the eventual file type and auxiliary type of the 
file.  A good example of this is a telecommunications program that downloads a 
file without a Binary II or other header to preserve the file's attributes.  
Not knowing the file type, the program has little choice but to assign the 
file as an "unknown" type until such time as the real file type can be 
determined or assigned.

Files should be given type $00 when the creating program cannot determine the 
real file type.  Reasonable guesses can be made (to continue the above 
example, a telecommunications program might assign file type $04 for all files 
transferred without protocol, guessing that ASCII transfers are probably for 
ASCII Text files).

File type $00 is not to be used for files regularly used by applications 
simply because the application programmer didn't wish to obtain a file type 
and auxiliary type assignment.

The auxiliary types for this file type are reserved; any files created of type 
$00 should be created with auxiliary type $0000.

