Critique of ‘files as directories: some thoughts on accessing structured data within files’ (2)
Stephen Kell · 2018
In this critique I argue that the motivations and direction of the `files as directories' idea are sound, but the conceptual difficulties are considerable yet non-obvious, and are not limited to those identified by the author. I highlight a selection of concerns, including Unix's latent pluralism, the blurred boundary between naming and computation in languages, and issues of bidirectionality, semantic diversity and support for economical migration.