[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Document  handling in GUI Environments! Suggestion!
From:       Simon Edwards <simon () simonzone ! com>
Date:       2003-03-27 20:46:56
[Download RAW message or body]

Hi,

On Thursday 27 March 2003 08:02, Edmund Humenberger wrote:
> As we are all learning now, Microsoft is working on a new File system
> called WinFS.

Do you have any info on it? I've googled, but there is extremely little.

> It does away with hierarchical folders, and instead allows to search the

> What will happen. After Microsoft gets its product to the market, all
> Open Source projects will follow with a similar interface.

I suggest reading up on Hans Reiser's vision/direction of where he wants to 
take reiserfs. (http://www.namesys.com/ , try to understand some of what he's 
saying in his Future Vision paper, it's not easy though). Anyway, what he is 
working on would allow things like WinFS, BeFS attributes, virtual dirs, 
ACLs, encryption etc to be easily built on top of or into to reiserfs. So I'm 
kind of hoping that he comes through with the goods, then it will be up to 
the GUI/interaction design people to find a way of presenting it to the user 
in a way that makes sense.

More info:

http://udell.roninhouse.com/bytecols/2001-05-30.html

Personally, I think that a lot can be done to improve information retrieval in 
computers by expoiting the relationships between different files on a file 
system, much the same way that Google expoits the relationships between pages 
on the web. I've posted about this in the past and done a bit of 
reading/research:

http://lists.kde.org/?t=102926214500001&r=1&w=2

> I even suggested Kalle Dallheimer at the LinuxKonferenz in Würzburg 1997 to
> implement a attribute driven file handling system in KDE.
>
> He just didnt get it. "Hierarchic file systems are good enough and everyone
> uses it".

That's a pitty because the file system is the most difficult part of a 
computer to use these days. They drive people NUTS.

cheers,

-- 
Simon Edwards             | Guarddog Firewall
simon@simonzone.com       | http://www.simonzone.com/software/
Nijmegen, The Netherlands | "ZooTV? You made the right choice."

_______________________________________________
kde-usability mailing list
kde-usability@mail.kde.org
http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]