From: Rick Bradley <rick@...>
Date: 2002-06-02T14:19:38+09:00
Subject: Re: Finding all applications

* Chris Gehlker (gehlker@fastq.com) [020601 23:56]:
> I expect to be able to search a 50 gig HD in milliseconds for queries like
> "show me all the documents originally created with application X" or "show
> me all the programs that the current user has permission to execute".

In the Unix world in general (which OSX is now a part of), there's
historically been no metadata for determining sytematically the creator
of a file [0].  Some suffixes are helpful in determining the format of a
file but this says little about the creating application [1], much less
a preferred reader [2].

That aside most legacy *n*x filesystems don't provide even the basic
sorts of indices you're looking for.  Simple userland add-ons like
locate/findb provide quick name-based searching.  There are, however, a
large number of filesystems available (something one doesn't tend to see
in the Windows world, but hopefully will see more of in the OSX world)
on various *n*x platforms.  I seem to recall some fs-as-db filesystems
getting some news recently in the *n*x world.  Perhaps that's worth a
look.

[0] the "magic number" applies in many cases, but in many others
    it doesn't and there's no forcing a developer to use that
    mechanism
[1] e.g., an .html file generally contains HTML, but its creator
    could be any text manipulator from cat(1) to Lyx
[2] off the top of my head I know that Mozilla, NS4.72, Konqueror, 
    Opera, w3m, lynx, links, and emacs-www are installed on my (FreeBSD)
    system, and all of those browsers get use (by me) from time to time.

Rick
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