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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!newshost.telstra.net!act.news.telstra.net!psgrain!news.uoregon.edu!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!newsrelay.iastate.edu!news.physics.uiowa.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!nntp.inet.fi!news.funet.fi!cs.joensuu.fi!news.joensuu.fi!news.csc.fi!nokia.fi!ntc.nokia.com!news From: Marko.Kohtala@ntc.nokia.com (Kohtala Marko) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Ideal filesystem Date: 20 Mar 1996 23:50:08 +0200 Organization: Nokia Telecommunications OY Lines: 55 Sender: kohtala@laurel.trs.ntc.nokia.com Message-ID: <yw03f73fn8v.fsf@laurel.trs.ntc.nokia.com> References: <4gejrb$ogj@floyd.sw.oz.au> <4gilab$97u@park.uvsc.edu> <4giqu8$aqk@park.uvsc.edu> <4gira2$a9d@park.uvsc.edu> <hpa.31321eee.I.use.Linux@freya.yggdrasil.com> <4h7t5i$qoh@park.uvsc.edu> <DnoqB4.2sy@pe1chl.ampr.org> <glDH59i00YUvFFjspX@andrew.cmu. <4hptj4$cf4@cville-srv.wam.umd.edu> <3140C968.20699696@netcom.com> <4ia7im$i4m@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu> <314A470D.CCE53F0@netcom.com> Reply-To: Marko.Kohtala@ntc.nokia.com NNTP-Posting-Host: laurel.trs.ntc.nokia.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 In-reply-to: Adam Megacz's message of Sat, 16 Mar 1996 04:43:57 GMT X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.1 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:19748 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:15771 In article <314A470D.CCE53F0@netcom.com> Adam Megacz <kalessin@netcom.com> writes: > Here's just a couple: > - Comments on binary files > - Author of a file Often these have been available with ident command. > - Icons for Xfilemanager, Xfm, etc... Yes, seems these are wanted. However, perhaps we had better design a binary format which can include bitmaps, comments, etc. Much like Windoze has, as extra sections with well known names in the file. > - MOST OF ALL, FILE TYPE! The standard UNIX mechanism for determining > file type is *almost* as crappy as WinDoze's (filename extensions). This > is one of the few areas where the Mac & OS/2 kick Linux's butt. file command does this to some degree. Not as well, but anyway. This has the practical problem, that how does the type get into the file? Would you add it by hand separately to each file or do you think programs would be modified soon to do it well enough to be of use? > - Short description of what a file does - this is a MAJOR help for > novice sysadmins. Also provides a more convenient place to store > "whatis" information. README file is often more useful. Besides, I doubt a novice finds anything which is not shown by ls. A real novice has enough trouble to understand files and directories, let alone extended attributes. > > the point is resources/EAs are poorly defined, and not designed at all. > NO - they provide FLEXIBILITY for the future. I see problems. What all kind of information would end up as EAs? Icons, icon positions and other user interface specific information, various versioning system information, operating system specific information, etc? How to cope with foreign information? What parts of this information would you like to have copied with cp? What should tar, cpio etc. store with the file? What about NFS and other network file system users? Should some parts of this information be privileged and other publicly available? Naming standards to avoid attribute name space problems? Information format? Big endian, little endian, etc. Perhaps what you really want is a WEB like filesystem where you have no files and directories. Only pages with links. Some links start up program binaries, some source code editors, etc. I have a feeling this is what Netscape is planning. -- --- Marko Kohtala - Marko.Kohtala@ntc.nokia.com, Marko.Kohtala@hut.fi