>> What, with only 16 possible colours available? ;-)
> 
>   Even 16 colors makes your life a LOT easier with file listings.

Well it's probably a lot better than just 1.

>> Actually, I tend to work with files through a GUI instead. And I also 
>> tend to not have very many of them. Distinguishing by icon is almost as 
>> easy as by colour.
> 
>   I disagree. Icons are small and often hard to distinguish from each
> other, and it's difficult to view at a glance what type of file is
> being listed at a certain position. The icon is not any better than
> the file extension itself. You may as well look for the file extension.
> However, coloring makes it much easier to see the file types at a quick
> glance, without having to focus on a specific icon or extension.

Depends on the icons in question. For example, I'm currently working on 
a Haskell program. All the source code files show up as a white page 
with a black lambda on them. All the other files (object files, 
interface files, etc.) show up with that default Windoze "gee, I don't 
know what the hell this file is" icon, which has a lot less white in it. 
I can visually scan down a list of files and instantly find the source 
files.

>   In Windows in particular, the icon is actually worse than the file
> extension. The icon does *not* represent the file type. It represents
> the program which opens that file.

...which means that if I had a folder full of PNG files, some of which 
had also been converted to JPEG, I'd have a problem, because they would 
all have identical icons.

OTOH, are you really telling me your system has a different colour for 
every possible filetype? It only has 16 colours available, remember.

> This sometimes leads to completely
> ridiculous situations where you have two files with the exact same
> name (if extension have been disabled, as it's the default in Windows)
> and exact same icon.

A very stupid default, IMHO. I changed that long ago.

> If you are looking at the icon listing (rather
> than the detailed listing) there's absolutely no way to visually
> distinguish which file is which.

I have mine default to details. Occasioanlly I change it to thumbnail. 
(Possibly the *only* genuinely useful feature M$ has ever come up with. 
I wonder which competitor they stole it from?)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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