From: p2p-hackers@zgp.org (Bram Cohen)
Replying To: Glenn McGrath <p2p-hackers@zgp.org>
Date: Mon Jul 15 18:22:02 2002
Subject: [p2p-hackers] Everything as a file in p2p

Glenn McGrath wrote:

> 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.

This is a bit of a subtle objection, but BitTorrent doesn't handle files
as streams, it kinda downloads pieces in random order.  The problem with
reading files from the beginning is that it leads to downloaders which
have less of the file having a strict subset of what downloaders which
have more have, so those connections can only transfer in one direction.

-Bram Cohen
 
"Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent"
                                        -- John Maynard Keynes