On Thu, 2006-02-09 at 03:54 +0100, Marcus Brinkmann wrote: > As you said yourself, less and KDE/Gnome applications are aware of the > hybrid types, so they know how to handle them.
No. less and KDE/Gnome applications are *simulating* hybrid types. This is quite different from DogCow types, because the application is defining the semantics of the simulation. > In both cases, no ambiguities arise. The problematic case is legacy > applications that can work on Files _and_ can work on Directories, and > get confused if something is a FileDirectory (DogCow).... This is the > fundamental problem you have to solve if you want to combine both > interfaces into one. We have established that this does NOT capture the fundamental problem. All of the cases you identify are real cases, but this example is a narrow sub-case of a much bigger problem. The larger problem is revealed when you ask "I have a file in one format. What does the DogCow interface look like when a translator wishes to present a second view that interacts **as a file** of some other format." shap _______________________________________________ L4-hurd mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/l4-hurd
