On Thu, 17 Mar 2005, Dennis Kibbe wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 12:00:54 -0700
> Craig Brooksby <rcbrxb@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm using PLUG as a "smart people" forum here -- this is not totally
> > Linux-centric. This is a question about good information management
> > practices.
> >
> > Just having a logical structure of folders for all my files is not
> > enough -- although it is important.
> >
> > Making really well-crafted filenames for my files is not enough --
> > although I do that too.
> >
> > I need to be able to *annotate* each file with comments like "this is
> > the final version I submitted to Kurt, and re-submitted on 14 Mar 05"
> > or "received from Bernadette for use in the foobar project. Destroy
> > after 1 Jan 2006"
> >
> > Furthermore, if I could create fields and populate them with values...
> > as part of my annotation
> >
> > Finally, all that annotation is searchable as annotation.
> >
> > There is a very nice package called FileNotes3
> > (http://www.filenotes.com/) that does all that on WIndows. I have
> > used the trial version and loved it. It stored its own little XML
> > database in each folder. It's integrated will with Windows
> > right-clicks, etc.
> >
> > Does anyone else out there obsess over this kind of crap, like I do?
> > Are there better packages on Windows or Linux? If you know anything,
> > please pipe up.
> >
> > (the other) Craig
>
> For too long the file system has been semantically impoverished in comparison with database and keyword systems. It is time to change!"[1]
>
> Assuring that the metadata of a file travels with it is, of course, the Holy Grail of the next generation of file systems (WinFS, Reiser4)
>
> Anyone who has done tech support can relate to this exchange.
>
> Tech: "Now open the file you just downloaded."
>
> User: "Where is it?"
>
> Tech: "Where did you put it?"
>
> User: "I don't know! How am I suppose to find it?"
>
> Tech: "It's on your hard drive just where you put it."
>
> User: "But where!"
>
> The PalmPilot is so easy to use compared to the Pocket PC becasue the filesystem is a database and you can query it to find anything you've ever entered. You're never asked to name a file or traverse a filesystem hierarchy.
>
> GNOME has emblems and the ability to add notes, but, again, the problem is that they don't stay with the file. E-mail your file and I won't see your notes.
>
> Dennisk
> [1] http://www.namesys.com/
> "
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings:
> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>
Yes, but more and more the files themselves have the metadata. Unfortunately
you have to implement an understanding of the files structure to make it
available. What we need is a better way to view the metadata and contents of
a file without having to open it. OO is great because you can just use an XML
parser to query the documents; you can even get JAVA connections into JPEG
metadata, but what about PDF files, or Word doc's?
Until we have a way to integrate an indexed search of all the file types I
think we will have problems, because when you get a new WINFS file or Reiser4
file or for that matter an OS9 or OSX file and pass that off to some one
running NT or 2K or something else, your going to end up with the same
resource fork like problems that you have now? Would it not be the same as
having to do a chmod 775 to get an executable to execute, or map a mime type,
or one of the myriad of other things we have to do in the world of disparate
systems today?
---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list -
PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
(text/plain)