From: p2p-hackers@zgp.org (Glenn McGrath)
Date: Mon Jul 15 18:04:02 2002
Subject: [p2p-hackers] Everything as a file in p2p

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Everything as a file is a mantra of the unix world.  Everything as a file
doesnt mean everything is a file, its more like everything has a file
handle. For this to be true, the file handle must be independent of the
content that it processes.

I think the Content Addressable Web  (namespace based on content hash)
approach used by many systems hinders efforts to see everything as a file
becasue the file handle is derived from the hash of the content. It makes
every file read-only, if a file is modified it becomes a completely new
entry (sometimes this is wanted).

If we abstracting the transport layer from our p2p systems in a generic
way then individual p2p systems can implement there different 
search/retrieval system ontop of that, you could have a CAW system ontop
of the generic transport layer, maping the hash based filename to an
independent file handle.
 
The trasport layer would need properties such as content independence,
security, (limited?) anonymity, accountability, intelligent routing... 
other ?

Does anyone know of any projects attempting to create such a network
layer,  anyone interesting in trying to design such a beast if there is
nothing else around ?


Thanks
 
Glenn
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