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Systems that try to get rid off the "files & folders" abstraction of a file system tend to have much worse usability, in my opinion. I have an iPad Pro, and the

Systems that try to get rid off the "files & folders" abstraction of a file system tend to have much worse usability, in my opinion. I have an iPad Pro, and the lack of true file system abstractions is so painful. Every app has its own way to store and retrieve data, there's almost zero interoperability and it's super painful to copy, paste and move stuff around (I know it has gotten better but it's still so much worse than on any desktop OS). I'm all for enriching the concept of a file system with additional meta-data (in fact many files do that) but I don't think that needs to happen in the file system itself. For example, software like Picasa leveraged meta-data contained in files to provide a new way of interacting with large number of photos. The author basically proposes to put such functionality directly into the file system, but I'm really not sure if that's a good idea. Right now it's easy to move files between different systems, e.g. from Mac to Windows or Linux. If file systems become meta-data management databases that will become much more difficult.

slightwinder 5y ago
> Systems that try to get rid off the "files & folders" abstraction of a file system tend to have much worse usability, IMHO it's because those systems just simplify, but don't move very deep in the space they opened up. If you don't offer power, then it's irrelevant which system you offer, they will all suck fast. > Every app has its own way to store and retrieve data, there's almost zero interoperability and it's super painful to copy, paste and move stuff around (I know it has gotten better but it's still so much worse than on any desktop OS). Which is kind of a surprise, I would think Apple would be interested to unify that space and offer a good user experience. > Right now it's easy to move files between different systems, e.g. from Mac to Windows or Linux. If file systems become meta-data management databases that will become much more difficult. Theoretically, it could be solved by using a meta-file-container. Something like a tar-container, which contains a file for meta-data and the actual content. We have this with specialized container-formats in media and office-filetypes. Making a universal format which would work equally well for any kind of file type could solve this problem of interoperability. This would even open up ways to improve files without changing them directly. Like adding subtitles or notes to a file, by just adding it to the container, not the file itself.
- EleanorKonik 5y ago
  App sandboxing on iOS is supposed to be a security feature, I think? But it makes it impossible for apps like Obsidian to work with apps like Dropbox, which benefits Apple; they force people to use iCloud.
kalleboo 5y ago
macOS has so much of the prep work for this kind of thing, but Apple has completely dropped the ball on the UI. Spotlight parses and indexes all the existing metadata in your files (music ID3 tags, photo EXIF tags, etc - run `mdls` on a file in a terminal to see all the stuff it's extracted) and this could all be used to make some pretty powerful UIs, but all Apple has done is made one very handy universal search UI, and then a very poorly designed specific search UI, and then made stored searches (which are also useful, but limited in practicality by how bad the UI to create them is)

slightwinder 5y ago

> Systems that try to get rid off the "files & folders" abstraction of a file system tend to have much worse usability, IMHO it's because those systems just simplify, but don't move very deep in the space they opened up. If you don't offer power, then it's irrelevant which system you offer, they will all suck fast. > Every app has its own way to store and retrieve data, there's almost zero interoperability and it's super painful to copy, paste and move stuff around (I know it has gotten better but it's still so much worse than on any desktop OS). Which is kind of a surprise, I would think Apple would be interested to unify that space and offer a good user experience. > Right now it's easy to move files between different systems, e.g. from Mac to Windows or Linux. If file systems become meta-data management databases that will become much more difficult. Theoretically, it could be solved by using a meta-file-container. Something like a tar-container, which contains a file for meta-data and the actual content. We have this with specialized container-formats in media and office-filetypes. Making a universal format which would work equally well for any kind of file type could solve this problem of interoperability. This would even open up ways to improve files without changing them directly. Like adding subtitles or notes to a file, by just adding it to the container, not the file itself.

EleanorKonik 5y ago
App sandboxing on iOS is supposed to be a security feature, I think? But it makes it impossible for apps like Obsidian to work with apps like Dropbox, which benefits Apple; they force people to use iCloud.

kalleboo 5y ago

macOS has so much of the prep work for this kind of thing, but Apple has completely dropped the ball on the UI. Spotlight parses and indexes all the existing metadata in your files (music ID3 tags, photo EXIF tags, etc - run `mdls` on a file in a terminal to see all the stuff it's extracted) and this could all be used to make some pretty powerful UIs, but all Apple has done is made one very handy universal search UI, and then a very poorly designed specific search UI, and then made stored searches (which are also useful, but limited in practicality by how bad the UI to create them is)