Jax pretended :
> FromTheRafters  wrote in
> news:lrtio7$ndd$1@speranza.aioe.org: 
>
>> After serious thinking Dustin wrote :
>>> FromTheRafters  wrote in
>>> news:lrte22$r6t$1 @news2.open-news-network.org: 
>>> 
>>>> Dustin was thinking very hard :
>>>>> "David W. Hodgins"  wrote in 
>>>>> news:op.xj4xbphsa3w0dxdave@hodgins.homeip.net: 
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Tue, 05 Aug 2014 11:18:40 -0400, Wolf K
>>>>>>   wrote: 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On 2014-08-05 9:58 AM, FromTheRafters wrote:
>>>>>>>> I disagree with this usage when in this context. These
>>>>>>>> entities exist and are accessed before there is a file
>>>>>>>> system extant to access true  files. 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> "True" files????
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Now we're getting into the semantics of what a file is. I do
>>>>>> agree the boot sector and bios contain data. I don't agree
>>>>>> that they are files. A file has a name, that is accessible
>>>>>> from the os. Neither of the above have names. While some
>>>>>> programs can read/write them, a general file browser cannot.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Regards, Dave Hodgins
>>>>> 
>>>>> I agree with you and FTR on this one.  
>>>> 
>>>> However, this is what a "file" is becoming most likely. This
>>>> context is  quite different from the context we should be using
>>>> here. 
>>> 
>>> You can obviously see the potential for abuse this will provide?
>>>  
>>>> http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/?id=154539
>>> 
>>> Frightening....
>>> 
>>> We suggest that one aspect of this adaptation is to encompass
>>> metadata within a file abstraction; another has to do what such a
>>> shift would mean for enduring user actions such as ‘copy’ and
>>> ‘delete’ applicable to the deriving file types. We finish by
>>> arguing that there is an especial need to support the notion of
>>> ‘ownership’ that adequately serves both users and engineers
>>> as they engage with the world of networked sociality. 
>>> 
>>> engineers? What a fancy term for er, Microsoft programmer. :)
>> 
>> I can see it now
>> Definition:
>> 
>> File - an internet standard devised by Microsoft to create an 
>> abstraction for anything a user might need an abstraction for.
>
> Rafters what's an abstraction?

In this case it's a way of making some underlying complexity seem more 
simple to the user. That's not an official definition, but it's close. 
In this sense it is the underlying, perhaps scattered, data which the 
user thinks of as a file being presented to the user as if it were 
actually a file.

An example is the File Transfer Protocol - you don't actually transfer 
a file, you "create" a file locally (zero-length) and "access" a file 
remotely (contains the desired data) and read it out, then write it in 
to the newly created file. Metadata can be sent to make the local file 
look like the remote file as far as timestamps and other filesytem data 
is concerned.

In this way, data which exists in chunks spread amongst many separate 
computers in a cloudlike fashion (like some P2P systems) can be treated 
(by the user) as if it were a file being transferred. Another is that a 
"folder" is an abstraction of a "directory" and some icons and buttons 
are abstractions of more complicated commmands.


--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2