[Python-3000] struni and the Apple four-character-codes (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Mon Jul 30 19:09:27 CEST 2007

On 7/29/07, Jack Jansen <Jack.Jansen at cwi.nl> wrote:

One minor point (that may already have been addressed, I've not seen the whole discussion): note that 4CCs not only occur on the Mac but also in various other contexts: AIFF files use 4CCs to define chunk types, MP4 files use them for a gazillion different things (media types, codec types, etc). Actually, codec types are generally defined by their 4CC, and some times these even get to be used as their mainstream name (divx and xvid).

It may be worthwhile to add generalized support somewhere to handle converting 4CCs from readable to binary representation. And, of course, the world being as it is some formats (Mac OSTypes, for example, and probably quicktime/mp4 as well, but I'm not sure) represent 4CCs in big-endian order, others (AIFF) in little-endian.

And some support both, detecting the byte order from the 4CC. (This excludes palindromic 4CCs. :-)

-- --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

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