Kevin McGuire wrote:
I was targeting the original poster. I was not trying to be politically correct, or technically accurate.
What does politics have to do with this?
Quote:
Just a little push in the right direction, and a file system would become a database since it already fully satisfies two of the points for a
Database.
- (Yes) Data is managed to ensure its integrity and quality
- (Yes) Allows shared access by a community of users
- Uses a schema.
- Supports a query language
Yes, that was my point about search. Adding support for search gives you the fourth feature, more or less (a search box is much easier for users to deal with than something like SQL anyway). The tricky part is the third feature, as mathmetician pointed out:
Quote:
Trying to force unstructured data into a structured framework would spell instant death for the OS which attempted it.
That's why application-specific metadata makes a lot more sense. Users (through their applications, or directly) can use metadata to structure the data any way they want.
Maybe we should try to make the original question more focused -- are we talking about making a filesystem behave more like a database from the user's point of view, or replacing the underlying implementation with something like an RDBMS? I think we're already in violent agreement that the former is a good idea. What about the latter?
Quote:
well i mean you know it's it's uh very close i mean you know these guys most likely do not understand everything a database does uh or even a file system and you know what you wanna do is get those wheels turning uh make them think.. you know, what is the difference in a database and a filesystem.. i mean of course you know the in depth structure is really different but i mean these guys are looking for inspiration to work on something, you know, and you give it to them.. you tell them hey, is a filesystem not a database.. you know instead of clouding them into thinking they are two totaly complete different things with no relation what so ever..
anyway.. you see they think and they build you know.. uh you know they do not want to speak English about it they want to build it.. to do so they got to turn those gears.. isnt a filesystem a database.. they say.. is he crazy.. no wait it is.. well ... maybe not completely.. hmm.. can i make a file system into a fully blown database.. hmm.. and the gears turn.
Is there a point to this?