system and desktop VFS merged

[Diego Calleja]

El Mon, 28 Mar 2005 17:14:03 +0300 (EEST),
rosen georgiev <dewie at abv.bg> escribió:

> Diego Calleja wrote:
> > The idea of /vfs/protocol is just against the idea of userspace filesystems. I mean, the
> > whole purpose of a userspace filesystem should be being *completely* transparent
> > If you're going to do /vfs/protocol, what's the point in using the filesystem namespace for
> > it, except for tyding it? What would be next, require the path to be in valid utf-8?
> 
> but if its ~/vfs 
> (the idea is from)
> Lars Hallberg wrote:
> > It would be cool if stuff i conect to over VFS turns upp in the 
> > filsystem to for old apps and tool like find. But I realy expect them to 
> > turn upp ass:
> > ~/vfs/protocl/server/path


The idea of putting "vfs" in the path name is not good, IMO. The _whole_ purpose of 
"userspace filesystems" is to be fully transparent for apps, and
"vfs/protocol/server/path" is hardly "transparent". The whole point of a userspace
filesystem is having a "~/music", "/randomstuff/" or whatever without caring about
what program is behind or who is providing it.

What we have now is:
kernel-libc <-> "path name" <-> apps

What people here is suggesting is:
kernel-libc <-> "path name" <-> apps
						    |
						    |---> additional layer

And the Right Way (TM) of doing it is:
kernel-libc <-> "path name" <-> apps
		      |
                      |---> userspace filesystems

IOW: apps get the cool stuff without knowing it.
I mean, people is suggesting to create this standard, and then if an app wants to be aware
of the functionality provided by this standard we need to modifiy _every_ app on the planet,
from gnome/kde to apache. Path name involves everybody, not just desktop.

What's so bad about doing a _good_ design and implement this behind apps, so they
don't need to know anything at all about files being implemented by kernel or userspace
programs? Creating a alternative vfs different from the real one, which needs to be
implemented by every app is a quite ugly design, as far as I can see....