On 4 Feb., 15:18, krischik <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > And it is precisely those "simple abstractions (files/directories) > available on all modern systems" which bring those problems. Only: > It's not "modern systems" - it's "between 1 and 2 decades old > systems". Truly modern operating systems support extended attributes.
One of the reasons I feel so strongly about this issue is the fact that I used OS/2 before where storing the file type in the extended attributes was standart. And it worked a lot better then extensions (Dos) or scanning the first 256 bytes for magic patterns (Unix). There was no guessing involved: The first filetype (the .TYPE xattrib in OS/ 2 is a list) was the primary filetype the rest where possible alternative representations (like a html file could also be represented as plain text). And then there was the .ICON xattrib - how I miss the .ICON xattrib - I could drag and drop an icon to every file and from thereon the file would be represented by that icon. Now, nostalgia besides: The point is that those "simple abstractions" lead to primitive solutions. And indeed OS/2 with it's advanced file system offered a user experience which even Vista won't offer you. KDE offers some of it - for the price of littering you filesystem with ".directory" files. But KDE still can't do what OS/2 could do - mainly because they would need use extended attributes to do so - and the KDE developers follow the same line of thought you do - which in turn holds them back. Martin PS: On FAT the extended attributes where stored in a file called "EA DATA. SF" - which shows that even older file systems can be taught new tricks. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message from the "vim_dev" maillist. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
