Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!elroy!aero!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!minotaur!simpson From: simpson@minotaur.uucp (Scott Simpson) Newsgroups: news.software.b Subject: Re: Why are news articles separate files? Message-ID: <1407@spp2.UUCP> Date: 8 Sep 88 18:50:31 GMT References: <471@icus.uucp> <1988Aug26.160040.22326@utzoo.uucp> <5239@hoptoad.uucp> Sender: news@spp2.UUCP Reply-To: simpson@spp2.UUCP (Scott Simpson) Organization: TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA Lines: 19 In article <5239@hoptoad.uucp> gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes: >In article <471@icus.UUCP> lenny@icus.UUCP (Lenny Tropiano) writes: >> why are each and every news article keep in separate files within separate >> directories? >> Wouldn't a database solution be more apropos? > >The Unix file system *is* a database, and one of the better designed ones. I think most people would disagree with you on this. Database systems generally have some sort of typing mechanism. Unix has weak typing facilities. Unix uses file name extensions as a typing mechanism. Indeed, this typing mechanism is not even built into the file system, but rather enforced by the tools that use it. Also, generally databases have some model of relationships. The Unix file system has no such concept. Does the Unix file system know that a *.o file is an end product of a compiler? I think not. Scott Simpson TRW Space and Defense Sector oberon!trwarcadia!simpson (UUCP) trwarcadia!simpson@oberon.usc.edu (Internet)