Re: [9fans] A proposal regarding # in bind

["rob pike, esq." <rob@mightycheese.com>]

# file names were just a hack to get started - literally to get started.
They were a place holder until a better idea came along.  None has.

# was never considered a great idea; I just needed some way to
name an unnamed resource.  I deliberately chose # as the character
because it's the comment character in the shell and therefore is
really irritating to use.

Your proposal is interesting but doesn't solve the bootstrap problem.
How would /proto get mounted?  You see, the thing about # names
is that they're really not in the name space, and that comes in handy
when booting or creating a name space from scratch, such as in
listen.  Since a program can't name the proto driver, how does one
establish a connection to it?  I'm sure there's a way; I just wonder
what your plan is.

One thing I like about your proposal is that it would make it easier
to import devices from remote machines.  One thing I don't like
about your proposal is that it would make it easier to import
devices from remote machines.

> This all seems so obvious, that I can't understand why it hasn't always
> been done this way!
Many years of thinking, especially when given the ideas made possible
by the incomplete early implementations, can make hard things obvious.

-rob