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- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
- Path: sparky!uunet!caen!sdd.hp.com!apollo.hp.com!netnews
- From: ced@APOLLO.HP.COM (Carl Davidson)
- Subject: Re: OO File system (was re: os/2's som)
- Sender: usenet@apollo.hp.com (Usenet News)
- Message-ID: <BrssDz.Dyw@apollo.hp.com>
- Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 15:58:47 GMT
- References: <9207221528.AA15892@data.src.honeywell.com>
- Nntp-Posting-Host: watson.ch.apollo.hp.com
- Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Chelmsford, MA
- Lines: 56
-
- In article <9207221528.AA15892@data.src.honeywell.com>, bergstro@src.honeywell.com (Pete Bergstrom) writes:
- |> From: "stephen dawson" <stephen.dawson@canrem.com>
- |> >"roger ramsey" <roger.ramsey@canrem.com> writes
- |> >
- |> >>An object oriented file system provides considerably more than simple
- |> >>Norton Desktop type functionality. It provides things like directory
- |> >>services and hooks for document management.
- |> >Care to expand on what you mean by "directory services" and "hooks"?
- |>
- |> An OO file system would allow a developer (at whatever level) to
- |> insert an object that alters or supersedes the behavior of parts of an
- |> existing file system. This subclassing is actually used in
- |> programming the behaviors of PM (and windoze) windows and dialogs.
- |>
- |> One of the simplest uses of this would be to treat .zoo files as
- |> directories, allowing the "dir" command to view a list of the
- |> contents, "cd" into a .zoo file, apply "type" or "start" to a file
- |> within, etc.
- |>
-
- Every once in a while I just can't resist the temptation to beat a dead
- horse, so here goes...
-
- The best example of an object-oriented file system I know of is the
- Apollo Domain file system. It does *precisely* what Pete describes,
- i.e. the I/O system knows how to determine the type of object you are
- operating on and calls the appropriate routines to operate on that
- object *automagically*. This facility is used, for example, to allow
- transparent access to the various versions (deltas) in a source code
- management system without modification to existing tools. Editors,
- compilers, and any other source manipulation tool you can think of
- can access any version of a file through the normal naming scheme.
-
- Another example of this is the "compress" file type that was introduced
- in the latest release of Domain/OS. It does on-the-fly data compression
- and de-compression.
-
- The Domain file system allows users to add new file types and extend
- existing ones by adding new "type managers" to the system. New managers
- can inherit operations from existing managers if desired.
-
- As far as I know, no one has implemented the ".zoo" file type on Domain,
- but it could easily be done (no, I'm not volunteering).
-
- |> >The WPS has features that I would describe by these terms. Maybe
- |> >OS/2's System Object Module has more features than you realize. :-)
- |>
-
- I think OS/2 is a great product (I run it on my PC at home) but it doesn't
- begin to approach having a real object-oriented file system.
-
- --
- Carl Davidson (508) 436-4361 |
- Chelmsford System Software Lab | Microkernels: Where less is more.
- The Hewlett-Packard Company |
- DOMAIN: ced@apollo.hp.com |
-