From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Sun May 4 10:51:02 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 68FD3106566B for ; Sun, 4 May 2008 10:51:02 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rsidd120@gmail.com) Received: from mu-out-0910.google.com (mu-out-0910.google.com [209.85.134.186]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 062538FC1A for ; Sun, 4 May 2008 10:51:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rsidd120@gmail.com) Received: by mu-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id i2so730950mue.3 for ; Sun, 04 May 2008 03:51:00 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references:x-google-sender-auth; bh=ARKOC36JVSS93YqDuhLGjeuPoF44o1Op4XfzWUoQThk=; b=RHsLzMjP2DhWqvPQhnHuBs8tU5XppyGWgu0Uh+kmLoUuxoHf6IVolUjh9nLqTK3veK8/7ZVv6HpuCE1D/pHyO5EXgs/WuHjJIIlmUMHbEC/c9DoJCYMky6hZ9MfaoBCxZnqaVQRGt5BvfQFurEesfUazFMy2al4F0HGqISEea5g= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references:x-google-sender-auth; b=tq57AYag+dvD38rT6Ya/4eUrDsFHCXCPXh4P8dYz/a+IXCvdWBo8G4iO2Bsvexdalgk8lEFt9iHzK0ijxpoypJIFAPRulVfpQ/Opeh+gXZvUUg7IIexktOJeUR48tlA8fokIyC8ewXXebIw/gzM3jPpZKzW/OvYmOqJYXCdVPGs= Received: by 10.78.143.13 with SMTP id q13mr1310193hud.80.1209896660786; Sun, 04 May 2008 03:24:20 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.78.58.12 with HTTP; Sun, 4 May 2008 03:24:20 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <6a506d980805040324k4b9cd9f8y2b75fd47781dbdfa@mail.gmail.com> Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 15:54:20 +0530 From: "Rahul Siddharthan" Sender: rsidd120@gmail.com To: "Jason C. Wells" In-Reply-To: <481CE0E7.7070900@highperformance.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <481CE0E7.7070900@highperformance.net> X-Google-Sender-Auth: ebec7702fd89e7f5 Cc: fbsd_chat Subject: Re: Tired of Hierarchies X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 04 May 2008 10:51:02 -0000 On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 3:32 AM, Jason C. Wells wrote: > When will we be able to access our computerized data on the desktop with out > complete dependence on the hierarchy? Has anyone in the FOSS community > tackled this problem? What software is used? > > I am tired of hierarchies. [snip] > In a library I can access pretty much every volume in two steps. Search > the index, then go to the location of the volume and pick it from the shelf. > Their is a pattern here. The easiest systems that I use all have a > "search/index" paradigm attached to them. The indexing system (Dewey or whatever) is a hierarchy, though it may not be obvious when the books are arrayed on a library shelf. If you want to index your files (metadata, or informative filenames, or whatever) and dump them all in one directory, go ahead. Thinking about a suitable indexing system is an exercise for the reader. (A non-trivial exercise. Library indexing systems are still a topic of research; I imagine the complexity of indexing millions of items of entirely disparate kinds of data, such as a typical computer contains, would be phenomenal.) Rahul