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- From: mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Meir I Green)
- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
- Subject: Re: OO File system (was re: os/2's som)
- Message-ID: <1992Jul23.154027.21582@news.columbia.edu>
- Date: 23 Jul 92 15:40:27 GMT
- Article-I.D.: news.1992Jul23.154027.21582
- References: <9207221528.AA15892@data.src.honeywell.com> <BrssDz.Dyw@apollo.hp.com>
- Sender: usenet@news.columbia.edu (The Network News)
- Reply-To: mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Meir I Green)
- Organization: Columbia University
- Lines: 60
- Nntp-Posting-Host: cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
-
- In article <BrssDz.Dyw@apollo.hp.com> ced@APOLLO.HP.COM (Carl Davidson) writes:
- >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.
-
- No? If I want, I can associate a file type or name, such as *.ZOO, with
- zoo.exe or its program object, add parameter -extract, and *boom!* instant
- zoo file type, with automatic unzoo.
-
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