> What I find most amazing is how the kernel is more like a file system multiplexer. Its job is to present a file system to each process built from mounting virtual file systems from all sorts of programs and remote machines.
Wow, that sounds really powerful. I've just read a bit about inter-process communication and sharing in Linux, and that seems like much more of a hassle than this.
> Even the editor acme has its own file system, which makes writing a script doing something fancy in my editor really easy. The file system gives easy access (read/write) to anything from the currently selected text in each window, to the "menu" at the top (called the tag). And if I write a script, it is executed anywhere in acme by middle clicking its name.
That sounds like it might be the answer (an answer) to something I've been wondering about: how to let another process - outside the editor - have access to the contents of the editor. Like for example synchronizing the editing/viewing of a file, instead of the outside process only using the file stored on the disk, and reloading whenever the editor saves the file. Could one use the file system of Acme to have another process view for example the file that it is being used to edit, in real time? I'm thinking that something like that might be useful for collaborative editing (at the least, letting one person edit the file while the other person watches the editing, maybe in the same kind of editor but hopefully through whichever editor or program that she wishes to use).