[haiku-development] Re: BFS file system plugin for Total Commander (Windows)

  • From: Stephan Assmus <superstippi@xxxxxx>
  • To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:58:02 +0100

Hi,

Am 16.02.2011 10:54, schrieb "Jürgen Wall":
a few months ago I started working on an file system plugin for the
Total Commander for Windows, which is based on the SykFS/BFS viewer
(http://www.skyos.org/?q=node/622) by Peter Speybrouck.
He kindly provided the code to me as the SkyOS project seemed to be halted.

The plugin reuses internal parts of the Haiku file system code
with a Win32 layer on top, providing required functions of the Total Commander 
API.

The state at the moment is that the attached BFS drives are recognized and
can be browsed. It would require some few days more to add file read support
which Peters SkyFS viewer was already capable of,
but as time is an issue at the moment and there might be other people
interested in that project I decided to offer the current state of
implementation to Haiku.

The code does definitely not comply with the Haiku code style atm,
nor is it homogeneously structured, however I should be able to find the time 
to catch up on that in case there is interest in the Haiku community.

To be able to read from (or even write to) BFS volumes on Windows would rock. However I don't understand why something specific to one application is being written instead of a file system driver/add-on at the system level, which I am sure would also allow Total Commander to read BFS volumes. I am not knowledgeable on the subject, but I am pretty sure I have read somewhere that Windows can have file system plugins. A few years back, the documentation on how to write one was expensive, but again I seem to recall that Microsoft was forced to open up these specifications. In any case, such a system wide add-on makes a whole lot more sense to me, versus an add-on for a single application. Even if someone actally uses Total Commander, he would not be able to simply browse to a BFS volume from a file requester within another application to open a file. (Like for example to open an image stored on BFS from within Photoshop Elements.)

As for hosting the code in the Haiku repository, I think it would be misplaced. As such it would not have to follow the coding guide, although considering the BFS code it uses should follow it already, it seems a little awkward to have a mix of styles.

Best regards,
-Stephan

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