Dotan Cohen wrote:
It's been a few years since I've run OS/2, so I'm working from memory. However, one thing it had was 64KB of extended attributes, which could contain an incredible amount of searchable info about an object.
Dolphin can tag and let one add comments to files and directories. It is very basic now, but soon it will be indexed and searchable. I do not know if this is similar to what you describe.
For example, if you downloaded a zipped file from CompuServe, with an app called "Golden Compass", the EAs for that file would have all kinds of stuff, including the file_id.dz (IIRC), which was a text file describing the zip contents automatically.
Do any current zip files have that metadata today?
No idea. It's been years since I've worried about ZIP files.
You could also add your own description and other meta data. You could then search your system, using complex relationships, based on that meta data. If you added something to the desktop, it was automatically added to the "Warp" menu. There were shadows, which can best be described as links on the desktop, so that you could have multiple instances of the same object and if you changed one, they all changed.
Symlinks?
They're closer to hard links. Symlinks are pointers, hard links are the "real thing". By examining a symlink you can tell the difference from a hard link. However, the shadows are not limited to one file system.
Also, since a desktop icon was part of the EAs, it always "knew" where the object was located, so that if that object was moved, the meta data updated automatically, unlike Linux or Windows, where you simply have a link that points to a file and if the file is moved the icon can no longer find it.
That might be a nice feature, but I don't think that it should be handled at the desktop environment level. Mention it on LKML.
I don't know the details of how it was implemented. It just worked, unlike in Windows where moving a file from the command line could "confuse" the desktop.
There are many, many things that the WPS can do, far more than I can mention in a brief message.
If you find a webpage that mentions the features that you like, link it.
Well, there's a very limited description here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_Shell. However, you may be better off looking for OS/2 books, which cover this stuff in detail. -- Use OpenOffice.org http://www.openoffice.org -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org