Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 4th Nov 2010 22:40 UTC, submitted by rhyder
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I suppose if the tagging system was fast and robust enough you could simulate directories using tags. Add a layer on top your shell/filemanager so that when I type ls /foo/bar or click on the /foo/bar folder you list all files tagged with "dir:/foo/bar". Moving a file would simply mean retagging it, symlinking would mean adding a new "dir:" tag etc.
I'm not sure if this is actually a good idea, but I'd love to see someone implement it and find out.
RE[4]: Tagged filesystems
by phoenix on Fri 5th Nov 2010 16:26
in reply to "RE[3]: Tagged filesystems"
I suppose if the tagging system was fast and robust enough you could simulate directories using tags.
Precisely. Tags do not need to replace folders. They just need to supplement them. Adding this to the GUI is easy, as done in Windows 7 with Libraries, and in GMail with IMAP (tags == folders), and in Zimbra (dynamic/saved searches == folders). And, didn't BeOS do this 10 years ago?
The fun part will be retrofitting it into the VFS/FS layer, so that it also works at the CLI level.
There's nothing worse than have a virtual folder in your GUI file manager, and being unable to find it via "ls" or "cd" at a bash prompt.
RE[4]: Tagged filesystems
by bogomipz on Sat 6th Nov 2010 10:30
in reply to "RE[3]: Tagged filesystems"




Member since:
2005-07-06
Exactly... but why abandon directories? Why not have both? I don't see their functionality as mutually exclusive but instead complement one another. I don't think the article is actually suggesting doing away with directories so much as advocating the use of tagging and that it could be better in certain circumstances.
Anyway, yeah, tagging/file attributing is a nice thing. I love using it in mail (postbox) and would really love the ability to relate groups of files by tagging them (yet also contain them in separate directories).