Dean Kent (dkent@realworldtech.com) on 1/26/09 wrote:
>
>So, I think you can say people learned from their mistakes
> - but part of it is that technology has marched forward
>much faster than those original architects likely ever
>considered possible.

Well, it's not VMS itself that is scary, but the reason I
brought up VMS was to point out that this whole "complex
files" model has been done (and not just by VMS, btw),
and it's been found to be a failure.

And the thing is, people are apparently not learning from
the mistake. There are still people who want to put the
database back into the filesystem. Ugh.

So I'm not dragging VMS out as an example of "see, those
idiots did it already". Back then, you had reasons for it,
although I suspect the biggest reason was simply not knowing
any better rather than the ones you mentioned.

Today? Not so much. Filesystems with complex semantics are
simply not a good idea. You want your data to move around,
not get stuck in the sticky treacle of some odd specialized
filesystem.

But despite that, filesystem people tend to want to feel
more important (or whatever it is that drives them to
invent new interfaces), and database people seem to want to
sometimes get rid of their problems (as if they just go
away if you move them to the OS), and the two always seem
to be eyeing each other with a glint of lust in their eyes.

I suspect it's because they both get intimate with the
disk, and they think that some kind of unholy threesome
would make it all even more fun.

Blearrgh. I need some mental eye-bleach after that
simile.

Linus