James Bruce wrote:
quoted text
> moving 1MB of attributes/streams just to change a 20 character
> author attribute seems a bit silly.

That's what we do now.  Try editing an MP3's id tags.

quoted text
> If it should be in userspace, we could take the OS-X approach of using 
> directories for everything, and the "data" that would be in a hybrid 
> directory-file is a specially named file under that directory.  Programs 
> for instance are actually directories, with the elf file underneath it.  
> When you click on the "directory-program" in the gui it runs the 
> associated elf file rather than opening the directory.  I think that 
> approach is promising, but so few unix programs have any indirection for 
> file access it'd be hell to teach them all how it works.

The interfaces we've been talking about are very close to that.  The
indirection is automatic: instead of a document (or program) looking
like a directory, it'll look like a file, and reading (or executing)
the file will do the indirection, with kernel control (and so
consistency and performance) via an appropriate flat<->structured
relation helper.

-- Jamie