One need for a in-kernel Lisp

[Harvey J. Stein]

Martin Cracauer writes:
 > 
 > I finnaly found a thing requiring a near-kernel Lisp.
 > 
 > Extend logical pathnames and network-transparent filesystems so that
 > normal Unxi application can open files given a logical pathname. 
 > 
 > Could easily be implemented using Hurd translators, but relativly easy
 > by making a FreeBSD and/or Linux filesystem that calls Lisp with a LP
 > and gets a bunch of specifications in return.

Could also be easily done under Linux with the userfs file system.  It
doesn't require Lisp in the kernel because the hooks for such things
are already in the kernel.

This is an example of what I was saying - you put the necessary hooks
into the kernel (in this case Linux's virtual filesystem), then you
build a kernel module to which uses those hooks (in this case the
userfs files system which can execute arbitrary programs from user
space to provide file system services), and finally you hook the
LispOS up via the module (in this case, I guess the arbitrary programs
that userfs would run would just connect to a lisp listener via a
TCP/IP port, and just forward the corresponding file system request).