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The US National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland is trying
to encourage software developers to think ahead when naming files. Programs use
extensions to the file name, such as “.html” or “.doc”, to identify the type of
file. Conflicts can occur when two programmers happen to choose the same file
extension to identify a new file type. So the NIST has created a central
registry where developers can check before assigning a suffix to a new file
type. The NIST Identifier Collaboration Service (http://pitch.nist.gov/nics)
will allow developers to review new names, and warn the user of potential…