unity-design team mailing list archive

[Michael Hall <mhall119@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> Locating/searching is one thing .   And the actual storage of the
> files is another thing .
>
> Let's not mix those two things together.
A filesystem, hierachical or not, is nothing more than a simple database 
with a specially crafted primary key.  I guarantee you there is no tree 
structure on your hard disk, it's an illusion presented to you by the 
filesystem.

> However it's hard to imagine how could someone backup the photos if
> the files are stored "nobody knows where"   and are accessible with
> multiple search paths .  This sounds like chaos .
The same way you backup any database, either in full or in part.  It 
takes no more effort to say "Give me all the data with a name starting 
with /home/user/Pictures" than to say "Give me all the data tagged as 
being a picture".

> So you are thinking to have the metadata stored in a small database.
> And integrate into the desktop the ability to manage the files with
> labels , and search for them.
That's all a filesystem is, metadata stored in a small database with 
pointers to disk locations.

> So I would take this idea much more seriously if i had heard you guys
> speaking of designing a new modern filesystem that adds support for
> file metadata , file tagging , and advanced search capabilities .
Linux filesystems have supported extended attributes for file metadata 
for years.

Michael Hall
mhall119@xxxxxxxxxx