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)
Date: 23 Jul 92 15:40:27 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.1992Jul23.154027.21582
Reply-To: mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Meir I Green)
Organization: Columbia University

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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