pathnames [Re: files, printers, etc. [Re: The feel of a LispM/List of running machines]]

[cwg@DeepEddy.Com]

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> At 12:05 Uhr +1000 2.5.1997, Chris Bitmead uid(x22068) wrote:
> 
> >>  "AI:STAN.K;LINES >"
> >>  "<PDL.SRC>ZORK.MID.3"
> >>  "Secrets:>udd>ManOfMystery>Deep>Dark>crpyto>nuke>plans"
> >>  "Quabbin.SCRC.Symbolics.COM:>CStacy>hacks>demo.lisp.newest"
> >>  "BARNEY:\FROGS\EYES.TXT"
> >>  "prep:/usr/local/lib/etc/etc/etc/biteme.arf"
...
> >I, as a dumb user just want to type ">applications>FooBar" and have it
> >found.
> 
> use:
> 
> applications:foobar
...
> >Under this system - YOU NEVER OPEN A FILE!!!! Files are not opened
> >explicitely. Actually you can't really call them files. Objects are
> >read from disk implicitely.
> 
> But you have the object store to get access to it.
> 
> >This whole philosophy can make LispOS the most powerful OS ever, yet
> >the most simple at its core.
> >
> >Any comments anyone?
> 
> Has been done in Genera already.

I was just thinking that in the area of pathnames, we clearly need to include 
the one universal standard:  the URL.

What we need is a lispy equivalent to the URL.

A URL contains 4 parts:

	protocol
	hostname
	path
	filename


It then has all that ugly syntax in order to allow different parts of the URL 
to be merged in a unix-like manner.

Clearly, an object which has those four fields would be a more lispy way to do 
this.  Also, you could generate a path object by parsing a URL like this:

	(parse-url "http://www.somehere.com/path/file.ext")

(partial URLs would be parsed in the obvious way and could be merged using 
CLish pathname functions).

This object could then be generalized with the appropriate concepts from the 
LispM pathname system to make a very general way to access anything anywhere.

I'm not quite sure how you merge the explicit protocol in a URL with the LispM 
idea of hiding that protocol where the user never has to deal with it it, but
I'm sure we can come up with a design that figures out a missing protocol
field appropriately.

Chris

-- 
Chris Garrigues                    O-              cwg@DeepEddy.Com
  Deep Eddy Internet Consulting                     +1 512 432 4046
  609 Deep Eddy Avenue
  Austin, TX  78703-4513              http://www.DeepEddy.Com/~cwg/



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