I've always thought a nifty way to deal with this would be to use a FUSE filesystem. So you'd have a directory structure like: /workspace /ast

I've always thought a nifty way to deal with this would be to use a FUSE filesystem. So you'd have a directory structure like: /workspace /ast /module-1.ast /fuse-src /module-1.txt where opening and modifying "module-1.txt" would cause "module-1.ast" to be updated, and vice-versa. I actually think I've seen this approach used in some experimental language or another. I'm sure there would be a LOT of tricky edge cases and/or synchronization bugs to address, but it seems like it's not very far outside the realm of feasibility.