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Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

(www.theverge.com)
669 points danso | 5 comments | 20 May 20 19:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.251s | source
1. polygot ◴[21 May 20 17:21 UTC] No.23261483[source]▶
> Changing a file’s extension does not guarantee that it will be converted, but Spencer was still able to submit the demo test with no problem.

In what situations does the file format auto convert when you change the extension?

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2. kristopolous ◴[21 May 20 17:37 UTC] No.23261749[source]▶
It's a naive extension filter then passed off to a well implemented image conversion routine that the programmer just invoked in their script.

So you need to do some little dance to get around it. You can probably run full blown postscript programs on their server if you simply name it .jpg.

College board is a $1 billion/year "not for profit" with a million dollar CEO, there's no excuse for this.

replies(1): >>23262947 #
3. user5994461 ◴[21 May 20 18:02 UTC] No.23262243[source]▶
Popular image manipulation libraries work with raw bytes and they identify the encoding from the first few bytes of headers. When a software work with common libraries, there is a good chance that it can deal indifferently with all the formats the library can understand (JPG, PNG, GIF, etc...)

A file explorer or website may filter by extensions, preventing to submit formats that are actually supported. A workaround is to rename the extension and hope it is supposed anyway.

Didn't work in this case. They tried and the picture was corrupted. It doesn't support the new apple encoding.

4. Spivak ◴[21 May 20 18:41 UTC] No.23262947[source]▶
Sure but they're expressly not a $1 billion/year software company. They are a pen-and-paper company that because of the pandemic had to build something quickly with little institutional experience.
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5. kristopolous ◴[21 May 20 18:59 UTC] No.23263297{3}[source]▶
Digital literacy from an organization in charge of a standardized test for 6,000 colleges including Princeton, Harvard and MIT isn't too much to ask for in 2020.