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#! rnews 3120 bsd Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!newshost.telstra.net!act.news.telstra.net!psgrain!news.uoregon.edu!hpg30a.csc.cuhk.hk!news.cuhk.edu.hk!newsfeeder.ust.hk!nntp.hk.super.net!news.iij.ad.jp!wnoc-tyo-news!matsu.nis.co.jp!aa.com!villon.nig.ac.jp!newssinet!sinetnews!news.join.ad.jp!news.imnet.ad.jp!usenet.seri.re.kr!news.cais.net!news.jsums.edu!gatech!swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!kalessin From: Adam Megacz <kalessin@netcom.com> Subject: Re: Ideal filesystem Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Message-ID: <314A470D.CCE53F0@netcom.com> Sender: kalessin@netcom18.netcom.com Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) 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> Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Sat, 16 Mar 1996 04:43:57 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.0 (X11; I; Linux 1.2.13 i486) Lines: 46 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:19556 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:15599 Mark Hahn wrote: > > > AMEN! Linux REALLY NEEDS THIS. There are *so* many cool features that > > can be implemented on top of EA's. > > I've never seen a nonsilly feature that EA's or resource forks solved. > and they introduce at least two problems: Here's just a couple: - Comments on binary files - Icons for Xfilemanager, Xfm, etc... - Author of a 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. - 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. > - what's the interface to the extra stuff? resources violate > the Unix concept of a file being just a byte-stream. this isn't > a big deal within a machine, but what about other machines? But don't permissions also violate that "concept"? EA's are just general-purpose permissions bits. They reside in the inode, and move around just as > - why have just one resource fork? why not have an arbitrary > number of attachments, each a seperate byte-stream. hey, why not > make it a btree or something. how about the keys: ints or strings? > why not arbitrary objects as keys? That's exactly what EA's are - the data is stored as a stream on the disk, but the application sees it as a miniature filesystem - a hierarchy. > the point is resources/EAs are poorly defined, and not designed at all. NO - they provide FLEXIBILITY for the future. -- Adam Megacz <kalessin@netcom.com> Website ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ka/kalessin/adam.html Linux - OS/2