3 ms·

I'm not impressed: Tablets and smartphones have a touch screen, computers most often don't. Software that doesn't take this into account will be a second-class

by Kristine1975 11y ago

I'm not impressed: Tablets and smartphones have a touch screen, computers most often don't. Software that doesn't take this into account will be a second-class citizen on the respective platform. And while a flat filesystem with a powerful search function certainly has its uses, I wouldn't want to use it for everything. I'm far too anal when it comes to organizing my source code, for example.

ZenoArrow 11y ago
> "And while a flat filesystem with a powerful search function certainly has its uses, I wouldn't want to use it for everything. I'm far too anal when it comes to organizing my source code, for example." The article touches on a concept called 'loops' for cases such as this. I think there's room for innovation with filesystems. Personally I'm a fan of the 'database filesystem' ideas from BeOS/Haiku.
- kalleboo 11y ago
  > Personally I'm a fan of the 'database filesystem' ideas from BeOS/Haiku How do you see that working well? Microsoft tried to incorporate all the stuff like MP3 metadata into explorer way back when (XP? Vista? Can't recall) OS X has supported "saved searches" which act like a live database-backed file manager ever since Spotlight was added. More recently they added quick tagging of files. What are you imagining that would be more usable than these?
  - kalleboo 11y ago
    So for some simple cases it works great. I have my music, my music app queries the database, presents my with my music, tags them into playlists etc, great. I have my photos. OK, so I want to keep my screenshots and the memes I downloaded from imgur separate, but those are fairly easy to special-case. Now I'm writing a novel in my spare time. I got my text document, I got whatever Evernote/OneNote-style system for notes. I found this cool MMORPG map editor I'm using to keep track of where my characters live and go to work, does that count as a picture. And I recorded when I hummed a few bars because I wanted to add a song my character wrote when he was bored, and now it keeps shuffling that in my music. Hmm these things are getting difficult to associate now...
  - ZenoArrow 11y ago
    I'm not familiar with those other approaches, but customisable metadata is only half what makes the database filesystem beneficial. Can you specify folders using a query language (via a GUI or otherwise)?
    - msbarnett 11y ago
      Yes. OS X has Smart Folders, whose contents are the results of a Spotlight query.
- p_l 11y ago
  ... Except that BeOS didn't really put anything that isn't also present in Windows or (much later) in OSX, as well as at least some implementations in Linux. And I might be a bit pedantic, but filesystems are databases. Indexing and navigation methods sometimes differ, but a lot of people use advanced indexing in windows that not only checks extended attributes but also contents. etc.
pmelendez 11y ago
> Tablets and smartphones have a touch screen, computers most often don't. Well all the PC's in my home have touch screen and I surely miss it when I use a Mac at work.

ZenoArrow 11y ago

> "And while a flat filesystem with a powerful search function certainly has its uses, I wouldn't want to use it for everything. I'm far too anal when it comes to organizing my source code, for example." The article touches on a concept called 'loops' for cases such as this. I think there's room for innovation with filesystems. Personally I'm a fan of the 'database filesystem' ideas from BeOS/Haiku.

kalleboo 11y ago
> Personally I'm a fan of the 'database filesystem' ideas from BeOS/Haiku How do you see that working well? Microsoft tried to incorporate all the stuff like MP3 metadata into explorer way back when (XP? Vista? Can't recall) OS X has supported "saved searches" which act like a live database-backed file manager ever since Spotlight was added. More recently they added quick tagging of files. What are you imagining that would be more usable than these?
- kalleboo 11y ago
  So for some simple cases it works great. I have my music, my music app queries the database, presents my with my music, tags them into playlists etc, great. I have my photos. OK, so I want to keep my screenshots and the memes I downloaded from imgur separate, but those are fairly easy to special-case. Now I'm writing a novel in my spare time. I got my text document, I got whatever Evernote/OneNote-style system for notes. I found this cool MMORPG map editor I'm using to keep track of where my characters live and go to work, does that count as a picture. And I recorded when I hummed a few bars because I wanted to add a song my character wrote when he was bored, and now it keeps shuffling that in my music. Hmm these things are getting difficult to associate now...
- ZenoArrow 11y ago
  I'm not familiar with those other approaches, but customisable metadata is only half what makes the database filesystem beneficial. Can you specify folders using a query language (via a GUI or otherwise)?
  - msbarnett 11y ago
    Yes. OS X has Smart Folders, whose contents are the results of a Spotlight query.
p_l 11y ago
... Except that BeOS didn't really put anything that isn't also present in Windows or (much later) in OSX, as well as at least some implementations in Linux. And I might be a bit pedantic, but filesystems are databases. Indexing and navigation methods sometimes differ, but a lot of people use advanced indexing in windows that not only checks extended attributes but also contents. etc.

pmelendez 11y ago

> Tablets and smartphones have a touch screen, computers most often don't. Well all the PC's in my home have touch screen and I surely miss it when I use a Mac at work.