Versioning and persistence

[Dwight Hughes]

| From: Patrick Logan <patrickl@servio.gemstone.com>
| 

 [some good stuff snipped]

| Jumping on to this list only today, I am assuming a LispOS "image"
| would be single user, or at least multiple users affecting a single
| "image". That simplifies a lot of things.

Most likely, though the details of exactly what the LispOS "image"
will be have yet to be defined very clearly. There has been much
wailing and gnashing of teeth over the issues of how the OOFS and/or 
POS and/or OODB will be integrated robustly into the LispOS *and*
be able to emulate a "normal" file system when required.

The issue of automatically maintaining a coherent image of the 
running LispOS - as up to the second as we can reasonably get -
is something that makes our collective brains hurt (well, it
certainly makes mine hurt anyway).

Some possible complications to the LispOS "image" will be Virtual
Machines as first class objects and the possibility of supporting
"alien" programs/languages/binaries.

-- Dwight