Re: gnome

[Alan Shutko <ats acm org>]

>>>>> "T" == Todd Showalter <todd@altsoftware.com> writes:

T>     I don't think this would be the way to go.  System services
T> like filesystems should be available to everything from the kernel
T> interface.

I've been thinking about this, and the more I think of it, the less
things like tar look like filesystems.

Filesystems are generally static, but files aren't.  Do you want root
to have to mount every tar file?  Do you need users to mount every tar
file?  Or maybe you just want to cd into them... that means the tarfs
can't be handled just like a normal filesystem (which needs to be
mounted), but has to have some funky hacks to make files sometimes be
directories and sometimes filesystems.  

What if you're not root?  Even on Linux, it's possible for the user
not to have root privilesges.  I can install gnome and Emacs in my
home directory and have VFS-like things in each, but I can't install a
new fs into the kernel.  Here at work, it's really unlikely that
systems would add something into my kernel just so I could access ftp
by CDing.  

What about changes?  New archiving systems come along more frequently
than kernel upgrades in some places.  If the code is in userland, it's
much easier to change than in kernelland, and the consequences aren't
as dire if you mess something up.

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - By consent of the corrupted
I fear explanations explanatory of things explained.