Re: Amazing... But also a bit stupid
Files and file systems may well have been invented like the writer said. But...
Now, a file is what represents all your work when the application's not running. This is useful because you can back up your file, restore it and your work comes back. You can email it to your friend you're working with, if she has a compatible app. It's the thing you keep in git (or other version control system).
That is, there are lots of things you do with data other than look at it through the lens of a specific app.
Apple IOS (at least for phones and tablets) have files, but pretend not to. Andl that means that every app has to have a share button, and backup systems are mysterious and out of my control. Fine for toy computing. I end up with a program which dumps my contact list into CSV and emails it to me. Bit of a kludge, but at least when Apple go bust I'll still have my contact list. But why make it hard?
We'd need files regardless of the nature of the non-volatile medium needed to store them.
And once you've invented them, they help you install programs and interface printers and ... well, more or less everything.
Whether there's space for a form of memory which is non-volatile but fairly fast? I don't know. There's a gap between flash memory and DRAM with just enough power to keep it tickled ; but it's not a really big gap...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
