Personally, I feel it's highly viable and desirable to implement a Windows
virtual disk that interfaces with Freenet. I think Aaron was flamed most
unfairly.
There's already a million and one Windows vdrives - for instance, PGPdisk,
1disk, Virtual CD, X-drive (as you mentioned) etc etc. I expect that all the
tech literature for implementing virtual drives is readily available on the
M$ developer site http://msdn.microsoft.com You certainly don't need any
'windows source code'.
For the idea to fly, there would need to be a coherent scheme for mapping
Freenet keys into the hierarchy of folders and files which Windows expects
from a disk driver. Also, Windows expects the driver to already know what
files are already there.
This collides with Freenet in that with Freenet, there's no automatic way of
knowing what 'files' are there already. One would need an easy way of adding
'files' to this 'virtual drive'. The virtual drive would need some nice
mechanisms, like spiders for in-freenet and web-based key indexes, or at the
very least, a cute drag-n-drop which converts FProxy URLs into formal
freenet key URIs.
One thing on the side of Aaron's proposal is that all the base-64 characters
used in keys, plus the '@', are legal characters in Windows filenames. '/'
is illegal, but it can be used as a directory delimiter.
For instance, if the vdrive is notified of a key SSK@we~1iE/fred, then the
vdrive would represent this as a 'folder' called 'SSK@we~1iE', containing a
'file' called 'fred'. A 'properties' dialog could allow the user to annotate
the key with a human-readable keyword.
Similarly, if adding an MSK, then the vdrive could read the manifest, and
create a tree of folders and files based on the files in the MSK manifest.
I do like the idea, because a vdrive could be a very sensible way of
maintaining a collection of keys. Each key that's retrieved could be
'cached' in the vdrive, so it only needs to be retrieved once (unless it's a
date redirect, in which case it would need to be retrieved each time).
My Windows programming skills are still pretty basic, and I've got my hands
full upgrading FreeWeb into an easier and better version but, if or when I
get time, I'll look into Windows vdrive implementation.
Cheers
David
----- Original Message -----
From: "Aaron P Ingebrigtsen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2001 11:40 AM
Subject: Re: [freenet-chat] Re: I've designed a global file system, it will
obsolete NFS, Gnutella, etc. I want to be assimilated by freenet!
>
> On Thu, 17 May 2001 19:19:47 -0400 Greg Wooledge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> writes:
> > Aaron P Ingebrigtsen ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> >
> > > I personaly would really like some kind of Windows Explorer
> > extension for
> > > freenet that makes windows think that freenet is some kind of CD-R
> > drive
> > > or something, you know, write once, read only media.
> >
> > That would be useful. Now, get the Windows kernel source code and
> > write
> > up a nice little FreenetFS driver. Why don't you ask Billy Gates
> > for the
> > source? I've heard he's a really nice guy, and he's sure to lend
> > you a
> > hand.
>
> Hey, I keep telling everyone I'm not much of a programmer. Why does
> everyone always throw my program suggestions in my face and tell ME to
> write it myself?! What do we have progammers for in the first place if
> not to create the tools that users want?! I'm a user aren't I? So why
> should any of my suggestions for tools be totaly rediculous just because
> I can't write them myself?
>
> Ok, so it would be difficult to do since Microsoft is such a crapper, but
> so what?! Freenet obviosly has a windows interface programmed for it, so
> how did that come to exist dispite all the crap built into windows and
> spewed by Microsoft?!
>
> All I'm saying is do something similar to X-drive, which puts a special
> kind of device driver into the system that fools stupid windows into
> thinking it is actualy looking at a drive. My freaking digital camera
> does the same thing!!! My Kodak camera has this little "System Folder"
> in "My Computer" which makes it look like I'm looking at a drive, when I
> am really looking at the memory card inside my camera. How can they DO
> that when Microsoft is such a crapper and windows is full of so much crap
> that writing anything at all for windows is nearly impossible?!!!
>
> I guess we will never know how such miracles can occur since they are
> beyond the capacity for mere mortals to understand.
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