pseudomantis:

File format names like .jpg, .zip etc are the file’s last name. A file’s first name is the name of the file before the file format. And they’re alive too by the way

ALT

update bc I’ve thought about it for a while now:

so even if I don’t go into the whole Tron universe having different natural laws from the real universe… I gotta at least accept that the Encom system works very differently from all the IRL computer systems i can think of

and with this in mind, we might end up concluding that the “JA-307020” after Tron’s name, as we see on Alan’s screen, is Encom’s equivalent of a file extension

ALT

but there’s… limited evidence for other programs having any such thing. Yori’s name also appears on a screen in the User world, but with a whole different kind of surrounding text

ALT

and Sark has an extension similar to Tron’s, but not onscreen? only in one of the early script drafts? (maybe the novel too, i’d have to check?)

and I had to come up with the ending for Ram’s name on my own because no one cares about him apparently

…but.

since I view program “marriage” as being combined into a software suite

and since I 100% believe Tron had this with Yori and Ram

(due to their obvious mutual affection and also their compatible functions)

(security program who monitors what comes into the system… laser program in charge of the most concerning route by which things can enter the system… probability-calculating actuarial math nerd who’s basically the security program’s Risk Assessment Module)

…their names would change only insofar as this would be required for software suite function.

maybe this just means they’re in a folder together. or maybe they’re zipped up together all cozy in a compression file.

or maybe something else I can’t even think of.

Because it’s Encom, and Encom follows its own dang rules, okay

and i love that for them