File Name Extensions

All three of the operating systems (Windows, Macintosh and UNIX/Linux) now try to classify files based upon their file name extension (the characters after the final period in the full name). This is used to (help) determine which application to associate with a given file.

RATS Program and Procedure Files

RATS program and procedure files are "plain text" files. However, to allow them to be associated with the RATS software, we recommend the use of .rpf (RATS Program File) for the program files and .src (SouRCe) for the procedure files. We also allow the use of the older .prg for program files, however:

1.it's a (seldom-used) synonym for batch files and as a result, quite a few e-mail systems reject it as an attachment. The newer .rpf does not have this problem.

2.quite a few applications have also used it and the operating system can only associate (at most) one application with an extension.

RATS Format Data Files

The standard extension for this is .rat. Some people have, in the past, used .rat for RATS program files (when .prg was our standard and thus could be confused with other software), which will cause problems if you ever try to double-click it, as the operating system will pass it to RATS to open as a data file rather than program file.

RATS Graphics Format

The standard extension for a RATS graphics file is .rgf (RATS Graphics Format).