Re: silent semantic changes with reiser4

michael mattie
2004-09-01T11:15:27Z

In reading this thread I have not found one example *app* that cannot be
implemented in XML. From
my understanding the big win of hybrid files is that they expose the
structure of files to the Unix toolset.
Assume that this is possible and you can cd through the structure, you have
acheived zero code sharing, only a never ending job of intergrating a
infinite list of format interpreters. With XML you have a
concesus on syntax (structure) that is independant of the semantics and a
significant and error
prone chunk of code can be shoved into a userspace library. I don't see
anything like this in
hybrid files.

So far the vision I see in this thread for hybrid files is icons, mime
types, character encoding, thumb nails, and meta data ? This is hetrogenous
content ! I see no win in a VFS interface to a ad-hoc poor re-implementation
of w3.org. I do admit it can be exciting to cd through the internal
structure of a file, I do it all the time with Xpath and XSH [ see
http://xsh.sourceforge.net/ ] from CPAN. The big win
of hybrid files can be had with a install. Transparent traversals of archive
files should be shoved
into the shell with all of the other ugly hacks where it can be caged and
easily killed with a signal.
Even windows programmer's reached this conclusion for some of their cruft.

My conclusion from reading this thread is that a proposal for hybrid files
should demonstrate a significant win over the work of w3.org before such a
radical semantic alteration is made. I hope
the comments of a humble and grateful user can be of some use and please
accept my apology
if I have mis-understood this discussion or squandered your time.

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