file attributes

[Erik M. van der Poel]

> A new system call would not only be inelegant, but it wouldn't provide
> half as much functionality.

A new system call could provide access to a series of name-value pairs
such as those found in email headers. The `functionality' here is
unlimited. Name-value pairs offer infinite extensibility.


> Another problem with the system call idea is
> that you'd then need to make every vendor support it, and use the same
> attributes and so forth for your application to work right.

Exactly. I have no hidden agendas here, so let me spell it out. One of
my aims is to get something like this into POSIX. This way, many
vendors will feel obliged to support it.

Also, we need to officially register names and values, so that
everyone agrees on their meaning (even in the non-Unix world).


> Besides - I don't see how you can say UNIX doesn't
> have good facilities for doing this kind of stuff - have you ever looked
> at Visix' "Looking Glass" or something like that? It works fine, and ...

It does not "work fine". It cannot tell what has been stored in a
cartridge tape. None of the GUIs can do this (yet).
-
-- 
Erik M. van der Poel                                      erik at sra.co.jp
Software Research Associates, Inc., Tokyo, Japan     TEL +81-3-3234-2692