The term "filesystem" is too overloaded. #2301

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zancas · 2014-09-22T19:38:10Z

zancas commented

2014-09-22 19:38:10 +00:00

When we describe the application as a filesystem, people anticipate it to have properties it does not (e.g. POSIX compliance), if I understand properly.

Since the application will never have those properties, it should be described as something other than a filesystem.

Here's a snippet warner and I chatting in IRC:

<zancas> Would it be useful to replace the term "filesystem" with something
         else in this (and other docs)?
<zancas> If yes, is there an agreed upon replacement?  [13:32]
<warner> hm, good question  [13:34]
<warner> I suppose "storage system" is slightly less misleading

I'll change the word "filesystem" to ~~"data store"~~ "storage system" in the commit I'm making. Even if this doesn't pass review it'll draw welcome attention to the issue.

When we describe the application as a filesystem, people anticipate it to have properties it does not (e.g. POSIX compliance), if I understand properly. Since the application will never have those properties, it should be described as something other than a filesystem. Here's a snippet warner and I chatting in IRC: ``` <zancas> Would it be useful to replace the term "filesystem" with something else in this (and other docs)? <zancas> If yes, is there an agreed upon replacement? [13:32] <warner> hm, good question [13:34] <warner> I suppose "storage system" is slightly less misleading ``` I'll change the word "filesystem" to ~~"data store"~~ "storage system" in the commit I'm making. Even if this doesn't pass review it'll draw welcome attention to the issue.

zancas added the

labels 2014-09-22 19:38:10 +00:00

zancas added this to the undecided milestone 2014-09-22 19:38:10 +00:00

zancas commented

2014-09-22 19:39:14 +00:00

Hmmpphh... oopps... I meant "filesystem" to "storage system".

zancas commented

2014-09-22 19:53:35 +00:00

OK, here's a commit that does so:

https://github.com/zancas/tahoe-lafs/commit/dd1bf52fdd8bc810432c7a4b929cfddffc696dd3#diff-d83fd9b94da243cc7e3efb26dfe74aeb

OK, here's a commit that does so: <https://github.com/zancas/tahoe-lafs/commit/dd1bf52fdd8bc810432c7a4b929cfddffc696dd3#diff-d83fd9b94da243cc7e3efb26dfe74aeb>

daira commented

2014-09-23 21:57:47 +00:00

+1, but please also change source:docs/architecture.rst, source:docs/frontends/CLI.rst, and source:docs/specifications/dirnodes.rst.

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