don't design for Unix/Linux only (was: Re: Delete all and replace is practical)

At 08:00 04/02/01 -0800, Chuq Von Rospach wrote:

><Sermon>
>
>I also think there's some inherent assumption among some folks here that 
>this new thing is going to be Unix/Linux based. We need to remember that 
>not only isn't the existing reality all Unix/Linux, we're designing for 
>the future, where we have no idea what the underlying infrastructure will 
>be, either on the network or hosts.
>
>That's a very important reason why we need to focus on protocols, 
>services, api's and interfaces and not what goes on behind that, because 
>this thing needs to survive beyond the internet, beyond TCP/IP, and beyond 
>our current OS systems. It's also a reason why we should avoid growing the 
>charter into the storage and delivery parts, because it's not just a case 
>of grabbing Cyrus iMap and modifying it to the new setup... You don't know 
>what the filestore and its interface are going to be, or even if you have 
>a filestore.

Well, yes and no. We may be able to design (on the surface) good-looking
transport stuff that maps very badly into existing filestore or underlying
protocols, with no guarantee to map better on future ones. We are probably
better of designing something that works well at least with the things
we know (which is more than just Unix/Linux and TCP/IP).

And the ability to use e.g. Unix/Linux tools (again, not exclusively)
will still be an important precondition to be able to start this new
thing up.

Regards,   Martin.