RE: LFM + LFSP = LFE?

[Scott McKay <address@hidden>]

At 10:54 AM -0400 6/12/03, Anton van Straaten wrote:
>
>>  "Source code in files - how quaint."  -- Kent Beck
>
>The question is, what do Smalltalk environments offer to duplicate the
>functionality of files - their ability to be shared granularly amongst
>multiple disparate applications?  There's value and synergy there which
>can't simply be ignored.
>

That's funny.  Here's the reply I privately sent
to Avi on this subject.  At the risk of sounding
overly argumentative, I'll post it more broadly.

I hope this quotation is taken out of context,
because as it stands it's remarkably stupid.
Here's why:
  - Many organizations rely on some sort of source
    version control systems, and I have yet to see
    commercial-grade systems that use something
    other than flat files.
  - Who says that "files" are not allowed to obey
    protocols that allow them to be accessed along
    axes other than a "stream of bytes"?  The editor
    I wrote for Harlqn/FunO Dylan treated source
    files as databases, even though they happened
    to be stored in flat files that could be checked
    in to/out of traditional source control systems.