Article View: comp.cog-eng
Article #288Re: Formalizing location and distance in file retrieval systems
From: Kevin Montgomery
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 1990 22:22
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 1990 22:22
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1587 bytes
/ hpindda:comp.cog-eng / jim@se-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Jim Ruehlin, Cognitologist domesticus) / 10:33 am Aug 10, 1990 /
> This could be a subjective issue, depending on the user. To some, distance
> could mean conceptual distance, where a deeply nested subdirectory is
> considered closer to it's ancestor than it's ancestor is to its sister.
> - Jim Ruehlin
I think this is more to the point- it's the perceived "distance" that
really matters, since the filesystem is just an abstraction of an
information storage device.
I think the correct term for the Unix filesystem would be an undirected
multigraph. Undirected, because I can go up ("../") or down ("/etc"),
and multigraph (as opposed to a simple graph), because I can link a
file/directory to itself. A tree has 1 path to each node. A simple
graph has >1 path to the same node, but no node points to itself. A
multigraph releases this restriction.
(God, I hope this is all right, or I *REALLY* didn't get anything out
of that old Discrete Math class! :)
kevin
ps: alot of disjoint work is being done on naming at the moment- it's
a "global" problem (yes, pun intended).
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!ucbvax!hplabs!hpcc01!hpcuhb!hpindda!kmont From: kmont@hpindda.HP.COM (Kevin Montgomery) Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng Subject: Re: Formalizing location and distance in file retrieval systems Message-ID: <3500013@hpindda.HP.COM> Date: 13 Aug 90 22:22:34 GMT References: <1801@nvuxr.UUCP> Organization: Bill and Dave's Lines: 24