[pmwiki-users] "Paths are formulas" v.s. hiearchical groups etc
christian.ridderstrom at gmail.com
christian.ridderstrom at gmail.com
Mon Sep 11 12:53:15 CDT 2006
Here's an interesting text I picked up while reading about FUSE
(filesystem in userspace). It is similar to some ideas I've had about how
the "path" to a wiki page maybe should be something else, something more
like a search query.
At http://fuse.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/LfsDetails you'll find this
text about something they call the "Logic File System":
Information systems give means for organising, retrieving and
manipulating information. ... To search for files, traditional
information systems like file systems, and the web with its search
engines provide either navigation or query but do not allow to combine
them. On the one hand navigation is intuitive and progressive but it
implies a rigid and single classification of data. On the other hand
query brings flexibility and expressivity but lacks the advantages of
navigation. To make it easy to manipulate the contents of those files,
those systems come with separate tools which suffer too from the same
limitation. We propose a new paradigm for information system: "Logic
File System" (LFS), that offers expressive organisation, retrieval
combining both query and navigation, and ease of manipulation of both
files and contents of files in an integrated way at the file system
level.
To achieve this integration, this paradigm associates logical properties
to files and parts of file, and logical deduction serves as a basis for
navigation and querying. "Paths are formulas", directories represent
queries and determine set of files and parts of file whose description
satisfies the formula. The root directory represents the formula "true",
and sub-directories of a directory are determined by the most general
properties refining the query, hence combining navigation and query.
File contents are determined by those parts of the original file that
satisfy the formula. This permits simultaneous read and write accesses
to different "views" on a file, in order to help in separating a user's
concerns. Properties can be attached to information manually by the user
and automatically via programs called "transducers", and can be ordered
manually by the user to form taxonomies or automatically via logic
deduction engines. Users can dynamically extend the system by providing
their own logic deduction engines and transducers.
I'm just hoping this will bring inspiration to others on this list. As for
the LFS discussed above, I have no idea about its actual status and if it
is really usable in practice... Anyway, by posting it to the list I'll
know where to find this information if I need it again :-)
/Christian
--
Christian Ridderström, +46-8-768 39 44 http://www.md.kth.se/~chr
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