From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: remember(-diary).el Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 05:56:18 +0900 Message-ID: <87ve7s3clp.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <4743DD30.4010504@gmx.at> <4743EFE7.7080907@gmx.at> <87myt7aejq.fsf@catnip.gol.com> <4745446E.6010009@gmx.at> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1195851261 12580 80.91.229.12 (23 Nov 2007 20:54:21 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:54:21 +0000 (UTC) Cc: joakim@verona.se, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: rms@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Nov 23 21:54:27 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1IvfXf-0005bq-8K for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:54:27 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1IvfXQ-0006Al-Jf for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:54:12 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1IvfXM-0006AK-Jv for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:54:08 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1IvfXK-0006A8-4Y for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:54:08 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1IvfXJ-0006A5-Uy for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:54:05 -0500 Original-Received: from mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.223]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1IvfXB-0005ef-CD; Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:53:57 -0500 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (unknown [130.158.99.156]) by mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id 28E931535A8; Sat, 24 Nov 2007 05:53:53 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id CE87A1A2E12; Sat, 24 Nov 2007 05:56:18 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.5 (beta28) "fuki" (+CVS-20070621) XEmacs Lucid X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:84008 Archived-At: Richard Stallman writes: > Would it be possible for emacs to read its files from some kind of > archive? That way the issue of different filesystems having > substandard support for long filenames wouldnt come up. > > I don't want to bother with new features to support semi-obsolete > systems. Renaming files is less work. While there's probably no hurry to implement the feature for Emacs, the idea of reading files from archives rather than on-disk file systems has many applications. For example, Python and Java have the concept of "eggs" and "jar files" respectively, which simplify the distribution of 3rd-party libraries, both by removing the distinction between the distribution medium and the installed package and by making the directory listing of the installed packages cleaner. These are basically just zip archives. Also, most free software OSes today provide file systems which allow mounting archives as file systems, as well as more primitive loopback file systems that emulate an on-disk file system's layout in a file. The advantage of implementing at the application level is that directory access doesn't require a system call.