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diff --git a/doc/source/index.rst b/doc/source/index.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91d53f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/source/index.rst @@ -0,0 +1,75 @@ + +The Black Star File System +========================== + +A file system has two roles: It has to specify how to write files to a medium, and it has to define how a user can access files. +Most file systems focus on the first role and adopt the standard directory tree approach for the second role. +It is of course necessary to solve the challenges of medium access, but we should not neglect the user's perspective. +As a user, I mostly care about how how conveniently I can organize my data, and quickly I can access relevant information. +The hierarchical approach is rather restrictive in this regard: +You can only organize files in a directory tree [#f1]_, and search tasks often require third-party tools like `find`_ or `locate`_. + +Tagging file systems proposed an alternative file organization model. +Instead of a placing files in directories, they assign one or more (user-defined) tags to each file. +This increases the flexibility over a hierarchical data model, +because you can group any combination of files, and each file can be a part of various groups. +Semantic file systems push this idea one step further by trying to understand +the data they're dealing with. +For example, files can be grouped by their data type (documents), file format (odt), +author (yourself), topic (information management), etc. +The benefit for the user is that they can browse their files by association rather than by location --- similar to how we nagivate the Web. + +Clearly, the hierarchical approach is insufficient to organize this variety of information. +Instead, we need a network of files, +where they can be connected to each other, their properties, or to auxiliary nodes +(such as tags, collections, etc.) under a given relationship. +We call this the file graph. +With the *Black Star File System (BSFS)*, you can store, manage, and query such a file graph. + +.. + TODO: Clarify + * Different relationships + * Properties and auxiliary nodes + + TODO: File graph image + TODO: SFS/TFS references + + TODO: BSFS features + Within BSFS, you can store the file content, file metadata, + and content-derived information (e.g., features) alike. + + Within the file graph, we link files directly, + through properties, or through intermediate nodes. + +The Black Star File System is designed with three query patterns in mind: +navigation, search, and browsing. + +The **navigation** pattern describes the case when the user knows exactly what they want, +and they already have an address or id of the target file. +BSFS identifies each file with a unique URI, +or you can quickly navigate to a file via its name or other file properties. + +A **search** occurs when the user lacks the specific address or identifier to a target file, +but they have relatively clear and narrow search criteria. +With BSFS, you can search by file properties (name, size), content (keywords, features), +or associations to other files and auxiliary nodes (tags, collections). + +**Browsing** takes place when the user has only vague query criteria but wants to quickly scan and compare many files. +In BSFS, you can browse along file associations and rank results by a variety of similarity metrics. + +.. toctree:: + :maxdepth: 1 + + installation + concepts + architecture + api/modules + + +.. [#f1] although links and similar techniques allow some deviation from this principle + +.. _find: https://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/manual/html_node/find_html/Invoking-find.html#Invoking-find + +.. _locate: https://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/manual/html_node/find_html/Invoking-locate.html + + |