Re: file as a directory

[Sean McGrath <sean.mcgrath@propylon.com>]

Peter Foldiak wrote:

>On Tue, 2005-05-10 at 15:53, Hans Reiser wrote:
>  
>
>>I agree with the below in that sometimes you want to see a collection of
>>stuff as one file, and sometimes you want to see it as a tree, and that
>>file format browsers can be integrated into file system browsers to look
>>seamless to users.
>>
>>A quibble: A name is just a means to select a file; he is completely
>>wrong to think that file browsers will eliminate filenames.
>>    
>>
>
>Yes, even if you think of the whole file system as a single "file", you
>need a way to select the bit you need, and you will use names for that
>(and whether you call that a filename, a file-part name or an object
>name doesn't really matter).
>  
>
The thing that interests me most is the difference (if any) between 
giving a stream of bytes an opaque name e.g. "Chapter 1 of my book.sxw" 
versus giving a stream of bytes a query expression that can also be 
considered an opaque name e.g.
"/book/chapter[1] "

This is what the Russell/Frege descriptive theory of proper names 
applied to storage systems in a sense[1].

I've written about this stuff before on ITWorld (warning: chatty prose 
style ahead):

    Fractals, Self Similarity, and the Whimsical Boundaries of XML Documents
    http://www.itworld.com/nl/xml_prac/04252002/

    A study in XML culture and evolution
    http://www.itworld.com/nl/ebiz_ent/03252003/

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_name

Sean