Re: Things that Longhorn seems to be doing right

[Scott Robert Ladd <coyote@coyotegulch.com>]

Joseph Pingenot wrote:
> Actually, the point isn't to be Microsoft-compatible; rather, it's to
> aid in the indexing of information for quick search and cross-reference
> (their thrust at the 'knowledge worker').

Exactly. In my experience the most significant problem programmers face 
is inventing a system for categorizing and organizing information. I 
have 20 years of collected data on everything from fly fishing to solar 
sails; lord knows I can't ever find anything, no matter how carefully I 
organize my directories.

Another problem with metadata is that it is largely generated by the 
user, who is notoriously lazy. A truly powerful system would use 
contextual analysis and other  algorithms to automatically generate 
metadata, freeing the user from an onerous task (which is what computers 
should do). Certainly, some search engiens are bordering on this capability.

> Well, the point of making this a modular userspace daemon is that we don't
> *have* to dictate any such thing.  The idea is that writes could be
> piped through the indexing daemon, and the daemon would then have plugins
> that understand *different* formats.  Optionally, I suppose, one could
> add a new open() flag to say "don't index this".

I've been working on a daemon that actively examines and updates 
metadata, similar to a web-indexing spider, but more directed; the 
metadata is then stored  in "spatial" structures such r-trees or M-trees 
(this daemon is very experimental at this point, and I'm still exploring 
structures and algorithms).

> Indeed.  Couldn't agree more.  That's why we should create *infrastructure*
> for such an indexing service, and allow the community to create plugins
> as needed.

A wise approach.

-- 
Scott Robert Ladd
Coyote Gulch Productions (http://www.coyotegulch.com)
Software Invention for High-Performance Computing