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


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