Re: [9fans] Essay: Is network transparency something bad?

["Russ Cox" <rsc@plan9.bell-labs.com>]

I had very little to do with the design of Plan 9, but...

I think the right statement of his complaint is that
systems should not ignore the difference between remote
and local resources.  Having different interfaces is
one way to force system programmers to keep the difference
foremost in their minds.  What he doesn't address is that
doing so limits the generality of your tools.

Typical Plan 9 configurations don't go and grab this
resource from that machine and on and on -- most resources
are local -- but when you _want_ to, say, replace your /net with
someone else's /net, it's really nice that all your tools
still just work.

I agree with the premise (that you shouldn't ignore the
difference), but not the conclusion that it's up to the system
designer to enforce discipline on the users and other
programmers.  The argument is something like

	- people do stupid things with x
	- let's not anyone do x

and the fallacy is that if you know what you're doing
it's very useful to do x.  Why tie your own hands behind
your back just so that people have to find some other
way to do stupid things?

Russ