Mail Archives: opendos/1997/05/04/23:10:50
Somebody (?) quoted Tim Bird:
>> Some attributes that I think it would be interesting to have include:
>> - for a directory, aggregate disk space of all my descendants
>> - owner, group, access control list, etc.
>> - package I belong to
>> - security signature
>
>Is this not covered by the owner/group information?
The security signature is better in a world where files are moved
around - it isn't good enough to say that this file is owned by user
500 because on different systems that tape or diskette could be read by
somebody else.
I think what Tim is saying is good - especially because the emphasis
isn't on a long list of attributes somebody, somewhere might want but
on a flexible system where more (special) attributes can be installed
as an afterthought. DOS has been dogged by people making assumptions
that turned out to be limitations in the long run (e.g. 640 Kb, 8+3,
and even 64Kb). The answer isn't to get every computer-related company
in the world to sit down and list what they want, but to have a system
that can be extended later (and just for those who need it).
I'm not worried about the resource-fork example (of one system having
*so* much more possibilities that transferring files out of it is a pain),
but I do think we have to be careful about viruses/trojans.
Directory entries can be sorted on the FAT partition's disk dir space at
the moment (e.g. Norton's DS command), but that is only one sort key; a
good database would have multiple index files (based on what people need
to sort by often). This is do-able, quite easily as an add-on to FAT but
very nicely in a new file system.
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Mark Aitchison, Physics & Astronomy \_ Phone : +64 3 3642-947 a.h. 3371-225
University of Canterbury, </ Fax : +64 3 3642-469 or 3642-999
Christchurch, New Zealand. /) E-mail: phys169 AT csc DOT canterbury DOT ac DOT nz
#include <disclaimer.std> (/' "??"
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