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Do you know what program the IBM file extension .pa is for?

Do you know what program the IBM file extension .pa is for? Is there a Web site that we can use to find file extensions for software programs? We are graphic designers and we get a lot of unusual programs in from "do-it-yourselfers" and need to find a way to convert files. Thank you very much!
One of the dark secrets of Windows development is that anyone can pick a file extension. Where the Mac has the resource fork which describes what application opens the file, there is no such standard in Windows. There have been some attempts in the far past to get some sort of standardization, but nothing has become of them. The only thing you can do is ask your customers submitting files what program they used to create the file.

This was first published in March 2002

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