Schinckel.net

Here is a response to the article found at: http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/comments/187/

As a refugee from BeOS, I’ve had first hand experience of the type of ‘live searching’ that Spotlight promises to deliver. In fact, the key engineer from Spotlight wrote the Query system (and file-system, IIRC) for BeOS.

Since I manage to keep most stuff well organised, I really only used it with email. BeOS, like Tiger, keeps each email in a separate file. It is then possible to have queries acting as smart groups for email messages.

The point where it becomes truly useful is where files need to belong to multiple groups - no need to have links or aliases.

Still, at times it is best to have files stored within folders - particularly if you are coding - you might have several hundred files named ‘Makefile’ for instance.

BeOS used a system of File Attributes to store meta-data about files. It was possible only to search on these, not content.

Does anyone know if Spotlight will use meta-data, or will it be automatically generated? (A better solution, since then the programs don’t need to be made ‘Attribute Aware’ - the filesystem looks after it.)

I for one welcome our new Searching Overlords.