pathnames

[Adam Alpern]

I said then:
;; 2) CL has a reasonable, standardized pathname system that it independent
;; of the underlying OS. Extending it past the local machine, to cover
;; URLS, etc... should not be hard.

Chris Bitmead uid(x22068) [Chris.Bitmead@alcatel.com.au] said:
;; The true power of a LispOS will only come when pathnames are abandoned
;; altogether.

I say now:

The true power of a LispOS will come only when make dramatic posturing
statements and starting banging out the bloody, gory details. You've
got to start somewhere. 

I want something that works -- projects like this can easily be killed
by lofty goals. Start simple. If you want to abandon pathnames
completely, do so when you have something that will let you do so. I
don't mean when you have a CONCEPT of what will let you, I mean when
you have enough infrastructure that you can do it reasonably. Trying
to abandon files and pathnames when you don't have a replacement is
suicide.

No flame intended, mind you - I would love to see an OS in which
everything is a persistent object, with older objects stored to some
transparent physical medium, and recently used objects in live memory
(think about the relationship between your office and your closet or
attic for a while), but we need to be practical in the beginning.

-Adam

--
Adam Alpern <alpern@brightware.com>
http://www.brightware.com/~alpern/