The next Y2K???
 

Just an idle thought.....

All computer files & programs end with a suffix like .doc (for MS word) .xls (Excel spreadsheets) .exe (execute files) etc..

Now like most things there is a finite limit to 3 alpha digits (17576 if I've pressed the right buttons). So as more programs are written, eaxh with its own suffix, what happens when they run out?

Can you use numbers as well??

Should I run for the hills now????

You forget that some files have a 4 digit extension:

htm
html

are both valid file extensions for internet/html files. There is no reason why you cannot call a word file "Name.worddocument" you can then associate the .worddocument extension to be a word file. This could be automated as part of the setup.

Yes, you can use numbers in the extension. QuatroPro uses .wb2

The three-character extension is a holdover from DRDOS/MSDOS file names which could be no larger than 8.3 characters - a format stolen from the Digital Equipment Corp's already existing DOS format which was 8.3

And don't forget .mp3

Unix doesn't need file extensions - although it can use them (in fact directories can have extensions!). Windows has some system files that don't have extensions - e.g. hosts and lmhosts files. There are several common Windows file extensions with only 2 letters - e.g. JS.

So there's really no ticking time bomb!

People were predicting the end of the internet when available IP addresses ran out - that's what prompted the specification for IPv6 - but as things panned out CIDR and NATing effectively allowed millions of nodes to use the same IP addresses (i.e. 10.0.0.0, 172.16.0.0 and 192.168.0.0).

SD