File extension issues

[EternityForest]

I'm not sure I like the way compression is done. Do we really need to depend on the file extension?

Allowing arbitrary compression types without specifying what needs to be supported sounds like a compatibility hassle. Ideally, you wouldn't.need to think about.details of the compression format, you just know that any SF3 will work.

I think Opus and FLAC are enough to be fairly future proof, and Opus is efficient, exceptionally high quality, and totally free, so specifying those would make sense. Opus is newer than OGG vorbis, and has better quality.

I suppose file extension based storage helps you figure out compatibility yourself, but that shouldn't be needed:.. An SF3 decoder should have a minimum supposed set.. You might close to use the extension anyway, but you shouldn't. need to known.

Beyond that, I'm not sure what good keeping the SF2 extension does. It's not guaranteed to be backwards compatible, and this doesn't let you know at a glance. The format may be the same, but in practice, they're different..

The best standards let you confidently say “Any X works with any X decoder!“ IMHO.

[davy7125]

Thank you for your feedback. I made some changes so that the specification should now include your remarks.