Computer: File Format
File as a service   (+1)  [vote for, against]
Write generic FUSE interfaces for public APIs, and get data with extra features to files on operating systems.

Or,... what I call "Metadrive". Metadrive would be a piece of software that lets you mount websites, as if they were disks on your computer, and interact with them, as if they were local.

This would give extra kick for operating system developers to build nicer file managers, and text editors, to support reading and interacting with the internet, as if the whole internet is on your system. Ah, ok, I had made a video on it. Here.
-- Mindey, Apr 07 2020

Metadrive https://wiki.mindey...rive-user-story.mp4
[Mindey, Apr 07 2020]

How does this differ from correctly deployed ftp: under Unix/Linux ?
-- 8th of 7, Apr 07 2020


FTP is essentially data as a service. The "File as a service" works in way that each item has bound session and actions (API calls) bound to it too, so, if a halfbakery idea is mounted on my disk, I can reply it by clicking on the file of that idea, and choosing comment action, without ever manually visiting the site :) You can't do something like that via FTP.

Should I call it "service as files"?
-- Mindey, Apr 07 2020


You're going to need platform-independent APIs at the server end ... which means a local client on top of/beside your browser and OS. Hmmmm. Or does it ?

Implementation via http: would be clunky, but generic. Browser plugins might offer a route.

Hmmmm.

OK, this is worth looking at, but might be more trouble than it's worth.
-- 8th of 7, Apr 07 2020


Software is a file.
-- wjt, Apr 07 2020


Not necessarily. A file is a representation of software, but combinational logic gate arrays are also "software".
-- 8th of 7, Apr 07 2020


I think MS had a go, briefly, at convergence between the file system UI (Windows Explorer) and the internet UI (Internet Explorer), and it didn't turn out well. I forget the details.
-- pertinax, Apr 07 2020


// I think MS had a go, briefly, at convergence between the file system UI (Windows Explorer) and the internet UI (Internet Explorer), and it didn't turn out well.

Yes, but that was more about the generalization of the file manager, not the idea of delivering web sites as plug-and-play devices. And on Linux, device is a file :)
-- Mindey, Apr 08 2020


That's not quite right; but it's a good enough explanation for most _lusers.

Is this some sort of kludge to make windoze look like a real OS, then ? If so, it's wasted effort. You're just trying to attach a gold chain to the gilded dog turd so you can hang it on a hook...
-- 8th of 7, Apr 08 2020


//delivering web sites as plug-and-play devices//

It all depends on the level of the website's world interactions and how much a user can do personally. Sounds like a laggy, self updating mirror.

But, on second thoughts, it would only have to be a few tiers deep of connecting links from user's position. Giving a false impression of the whole site.
-- wjt, Apr 09 2020



random, halfbakery