OFF: Extensible File System

[Francois-Rene Rideau]

> I'm milling over the idea of having names for objects of up to 128 bytes 
> long.  If you want speed in lookup try to give them all 4 byte long names 
> and have a quick lookup list.
Well, let's not specify it in the OS, but let it be protocol-dependent.
Local objects use local pointers; other objects are used through local
handles and local gates. Example gate: a (IP_address,port) handle -> remote
gate mapper. A handle is obtained by giving IP address and port; sub-objects
The underlying idea is: anything is an object. Don't overformalize them.


> Half-baked idea: Have each domain have a primary object name server, with 
> an alternate named as well.  The name server offers the suggestion of 
> where an object is.  Requests to that workspace can then be bounced if 
> the reference is not correct.
  Full-baked idea: there are hierarchically organized servers; there can be
several different hierarchies for several different kind of objects.
  Some kinds of objects may ask for "double-direction" links: every pointer
has a back pointer, so that the pointing object may be notified changes by
the pointed one...