http://www.eddiefast.com/2004/10/file-systems/ Sun, 20 May 2012 19:06:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 http://www.eddiefast.com/2004/10/file-systems/comment-page-1/#comment-5 John DeWeese Thu, 07 Oct 2004 04:57:01 +0000 http://www.eddiefast.com/?p=16#comment-5 There seems to be a very slow trend toward using file systems as databases. Right now the best we can get is sorting a directory by metadata, which is pretty snazzy, but some folks itch at the possibilities of a more general data store. But normally, if you want specialized database functionality, you go to the specialized tools and web backends. But perhaps there's a happy medium for some applications - instead of drooling over some sort of relational database model, start with some hierarchical indexing, and build an Explorer plugin to browse MP3s as if they were files and file groups. This overlays well on existing file systems as long as you have metadata, and allows an actual nice tool instead of some generalized mess. Or, since the functionality is so nice, I'll just continue using iTunes. Same with email. There seems to be a very slow trend toward using file systems as databases. Right now the best we can get is sorting a directory by metadata, which is pretty snazzy, but some folks itch at the possibilities of a more general data store. But normally, if you want specialized database functionality, you go to the specialized tools and web backends. But perhaps there’s a happy medium for some applications - instead of drooling over some sort of relational database model, start with some hierarchical indexing, and build an Explorer plugin to browse MP3s as if they were files and file groups. This overlays well on existing file systems as long as you have metadata, and allows an actual nice tool instead of some generalized mess. Or, since the functionality is so nice, I’ll just continue using iTunes. Same with email.

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