Virtual Filesystem (was: Adding ftputil to the Python distribution?)

[Bengt Richter]

On 8 Nov 2002 10:40:56 -0500, Jacob Smullyan <smulloni at bracknell.smullyan.org> wrote:

>In article <aqgi7e$j67$0 at 216.39.172.122>, Bengt Richter wrote:
>> On 8 Nov 2002 01:20:16 -0800, stephan.diehl at gmx.net (Stephan Diehl) wrote:
>>> I'd really like to see a vfs in the standard
>>>python distribution.
>> I too. But I believe any given implementation will implicitly reflect
>> conventions with respect to operations in abstract name space, and I think
>> that ought to be laid out in a PEP before adopting any particular implementation.
>>
>> Otherwise there is likely to be special limitations, e.g., not being able
>> to delegate parsing of path tails to other vfs's mounted within the first, etc.
>
>The Skunk vfs actually does do that on demand, but not automatically,
>as I believe both gnome-vfs and emacs will do when it finds an archive
>file.  I simply didn't need or want that behavior, but I recognize of
>course that a general purpose vfs should have that ability.  The vfs
>cited was written to satisfy some immediate needs, with a little extra
>generality thrown in around the periphery; it was not designed with a
>view towards solving every problem that a vfs might solve, but might
>be suggestive to someone working on a more ambitious solution.
>
>> The vfs above is very close to what I was talking about recently. But not
>> exactly, and not quite from the same POV. And any discussion of general
>> or genericized (v)file access will garner reminders that lisp has a lot
>> of prior art ;-)
>
>I'd be interested if you could enlarge a little on the subject of LISP
>genericized file access, at least to the point of providing clues for
>how a Lisp neophyte might research it.  

The smiley was actually meant for Paul Foley (whose intercession I was
anticipating ;-) and who can answer that much better than I.
E.g., a reference he supplied:

    http://www.lispworks.com/reference/HyperSpec/Body/19_a.htm

directing attention to "Logical Pathnames" in particular.

You can follow links from there to any part of the spec. "Common Lisp: The Language"
by Guy Steele published by Digital Press (at least my '85 copy) is a solid dead-tree
reference, or was.

Regards,
Bengt Richter