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> So your solution to organizing files... is more files? How would multiple files use the same "tag" under that scheme, without duplicating it everywhere? You
by marrs 5y ago
> So your solution to organizing files... is more files? How would multiple files use the same "tag" under that scheme, without duplicating it everywhere?
You could put the same file in multiple directories. You could have a file in ~/vat and symlink it to ~/urgent and ~/accountant.
- imiric 5y agoYou're right, that could work in theory. In practice it would be difficult to manage and keep track of all the links, update them if the file is moved, etc. I suppose hard links would avoid that, so that might be a reasonable way to implement tags, I agree. My main goal would be to manage this via a tag-like UI, so that I don't have to do this manually. And at that point I might as well just store the metadata in a proper DB instead of the filesystem...
- marrs 5y agoI'm not dismissing the utility of tags, and I like your idea. I'd definitely install it as an application and give it a go. I'm really addressing the argument that tags are a revolutionary change that should replace the directory-based filesystem entirely. The cost seems too high to justify the benefit.
- imiric 5y agoYeah, it still requires management and discipline from the user for it to be useful. FWIW I use Pinboard daily and finding something among thousands of bookmarks is a breeze. I can usually find what I'm looking for with a single tag or an intersection of just two tags. Finding anything on the filesystem is much more difficult, even with good directory structure discipline. I'm not actually interested in building such a system, it's been done before[1,2]. Though I haven't actually used any extensively, since it does require a shift in how file management is done, and I'm quite familiar with filesystems to bother to change, but it's on my list. :) [1]: https://tmsu.org/ https://tmsu.org/ [2]: https://www.tagsistant.net/ https://www.tagsistant.net/