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From: mogul@decwrl.dec.com (Jeffrey Mogul)
Newsgroups: comp.os.research
Subject: Re: attaching properties to objects
Message-ID: <1282@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Date: 13 Feb 90 01:47:25 GMT
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In article <1198@darkstar.ucsc.edu> preece@urbana.mcd.mot.com (Scott E. Preece) writes:
>
>I am currently looking at ways to support further typing of UNIX system
>objects (files, processes, etc.).  I would appreciate pointers to
>previous work in the area and to existing systems that support richer
>models of system objects (particularly those that support attaching
>arbitrary collections of named attributes to objects, as I understand
>the Macintosh Resource fork allows).

If I might forgiven some self-promotion, you should read my dissertation
"Representing Information About Files", available from the Stanford
University Computer Science Department as Report No. STAN-CS-86-1103.
They will charge you for this; I don't have many copies left so I'd
rather you got one from Stanford.

Note that I do not really believe that the idea of attaching arbitrary
information to files would work well in the traditional Unix environments.
It might be reasonable in a system that provided a Unix-like interface
along with a richer one.

Also note that I've basically ignored this whole area since finishing my
thesis 4 years ago.

-Jeff