Re: GnomeVFS ioctls, live metadata and dead metadata

[Alex Graveley <alex ximian com>]

Hi,

On Wed, 2002-11-20 at 05:18, Alexander Larsson wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Nov 2002, Ian McKellar wrote:
> > I think that having an API that lets retrieve format-specific metadata 
> > would be really cool. Perhaps this could even transparently cache the 
> > result in dead metadata. It should be plugin-based so that we can 
> > extend it and applications can install handlers for their own 
> > file-types.
> 
> I don't think it is cool. Nobody has yet been able to say why a generic 
> API with add-hoc names and add-hoc parsing of metadata values are better 
> than libraries for specific uses.

What I've always pictured was useful data to show in a generic preview
pane, and file searching/filtering integrated with "content" metadata,
all cached and indexed.  Things like saved searches or rhythmbox being
able to ask vfs for all files "by this artist, on this album, locally or
on the network, with these mime-types".

-Alex

-- 
 on the canvass of life, incompetence is my paintbrush.