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    SubjectRe: (reiserfs) Re: I discussed reading directories as files with jra, Stallman,

    Ingo Molnar writes:
    > On Tue, 22 Jun 1999, Bill Huey wrote:

    >> You can just search the data fork for content.
    >
    > why should we add such a restrictive construct to the kerenel, if we
    > already have a mechanism that does this and more.

    Our mechanism also does less. It can not hide the distinction
    between a blob of binary data and a structured document. This
    distinction is necessary for good compound document behavior.

    Dumb file problems:

    * App developers need to create an internal namespace.
    * Components that grow must suffer reallocation.
    * The big bloated files this causes will need garbage collection.

    Dumb directory problems:

    * App developers WILL NOT agree to treat documents as files.
    * (if they do: all app developers suffer extra work & bloat)
    * Users will get very confused by directories that are documents.
    * Tech support will want your head on a stake. (broken documents)


    > Are MacOS resource forks recursive? No.

    not very useful, and perhaps undesirable
    (normal users never look at the content structure directly)

    > Can MacOS resource forks be files? No.

    good - you are confused

    > Can MacOS resource fork attributes have different permissions as the
    > base file? No.

    good - this is CRITICAL
    (user to tech support: "my word processor crashed...")

    > Can MacOS attributes be symbolic linked across files to
    > save space and be more generic? No.

    good - this is CRITICAL
    (same sort of crash as above: broken links lose data)

    > Can MacOS resource fork attributes be
    > different things to different users in a multiuser environment? No.

    not important, and perhaps undesireable
    (this is silly: can /bin/bash be different...)

    > Directories are all 'Yes' to those questions, and they are
    > extremely fast with 2.2. Whats your problem with directories?

    Oh, no problem at all. They serve a different purpose though.

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