> The magic number isn't about recognizing specific versions Yes it is, though. Does your file manager want to display Excel files differently from .jar files

> The magic number isn't about recognizing specific versions Yes it is, though. Does your file manager want to display Excel files differently from .jar files? They're both different "versions" of the same file format! Phil Katz in 1988 or whatever could have followed the pedantry in the linked article to the letter (he didn't). And it wouldn't have helped the problem at hand one bit.