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From: bjornl@sics.se (Bj|rn Lisper)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng,sci.math
Subject: Re: Formalizing location and distance in file retrieval systems
Message-ID: <1990Aug9.094718.5021@sics.se>
Date: 9 Aug 90 09:47:18 GMT
References: <1801@nvuxr.UUCP> <1129@prlhp1.prl.philips.co.uk>
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In-Reply-To: pitchers@prlhp1.prl.philips.co.uk's message of 8 Aug 90 09:54:14 GMT

In article <1129@prlhp1.prl.philips.co.uk> pitchers@prlhp1.prl.philips.co.uk
(Steve Pitchers) writes:

%Actually, the Unix filesystem is more than just a hierarchical tree.
%Any file can be linked to any other, using either a hard link or a soft
%link - see 'man ln'.

%A file may belong to more than one directory, which would really cause 
%havoc with the notion of 'distance'.  The 'distance' to a file
%will vary depending on the route you take.

You could simply define the distance to be the length of the *shortest*
path.

Bjorn Lisper