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Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME): The standard format, developed and adopted by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), for including non-text information in Internet mail, thus supporting the transmission of mixed-media messages across TCP/IP networks. In addition to covering binary, audio, and video data, MIME is the standard for transmitting foreign language text which can not be represented in ASCII code.

The Tracker - Registrar

Zeta has by default registered more then hundred different MIME types. As you download and install new applications on your system, this list will constantly grow.

Other operating systems only uses MIME for Internet applications; browsers and e-mail servers and client. Zeta on the other hand, has a central MIME database for all it's applications, administrated by the application Registrar. The Registrar is always running as a background application, and each time you start up an application Registrar together with the Tracker will check if this application's signature is registered in the MIME database. If not, Registrar will add it. When you open a file, for instance by double-clicking it, Registrar will take a look at the file's attributes and check if the MIME type is registered in the database, and then launch the application it is registered with.

When opening a file imported from a different operating system, the file will typically not have a MIME attached to it. Zeta will then look if the file has a file extension, as each filetype is allowed to have extensions associated to it in the FileTypes database.

If there is no application registered for a MIME type or an extension, have no worries cause Zeta will try to assign a MIME type to the file and associate the file with an application automatically. The Tracker will try to read a small portion of the file and if it recognise it as plain text, it will assume that the file is a text document and give it a approprite MIME type.

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