From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:30:10 +0000
From: jsnx <jason.dusek@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <1187223167.452937.319060@l22g2000prc.googlegroups.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Subject: [9fans] everything is a directory
Topicbox-Message-UUID: a97c6472-ead2-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but it seems
like a good fit. What better forum for deep thought on the meaning of
files and directories than the Plan 9 news group?

There would be great utility in merging files and directories into a
composite content/container object that respond 'read' and 'write' for
file ops and 'list', 'add', 'delete' for directory ops. For example, a
disk drive could respond to 'read' with a bunch of stuff on the disk,
and respond to 'list' with a listing of it's hardware settings, which
could be set with a 'write'. Merged file/directories also make a lot
of sense when you think about languages with hierarchical modules --
instead of having naming conventions to find a sub-module, you just
look it up and read it. Similarly, hierarchical documents map straight
on to the mixed file/folder -- you put the intro in the head and its
components under the head.

I'm sure this idea has come up in the past; many of my ideas are like
that. The 'everything is a file' model is proverbial, but it was not
so once upon a time. I'm sure the 'everything is a directory' model
had its proponents in days gone by, just as functional languages did
(and will again!). In fact, 'everything is a directory' is the man
behind the curtain in LDAP.

In the considered opinion of the list, is "everything is a directory"
a big mess, a resource wasting fantasy, an idea whose time has come?