https://web.archive.org/web/20241017043750/https://alexwlchan.net/2024/static-websites/

I like this idea of having static html as page to explore folders, I had that in the 90s to better search for image files. Author offers no clues as to how he uses the affordance it provides though, in terms of 'showing the metadata' they care for and the little bits of extra functionality. And I wonder about the effort involved when adding new files. Presumably new files are added manually too, otherwise it's not 'static html'. Stores files by year, type and first letter of file name. That makes no immediate sense to me in terms of finding things back. Then again I never understood why you would have folders for file types. It's like sorting items on the type of box it came in. Good example though of making your computer your own.

Databases and filesystems are both systems which mediate the interaction between user and stable storage.

Often, the implicit aim of a database is to capture as much as they can about the structure of the data they store. The database is the all-knowing and exclusive arbiter of access to data.

If a user wants direct access to the data, a database isn't the right choice, but interacting directly with stable storage is too involved.

A Filesystem is a lightweight (container) abstraction in between a database and raw storage. Filesystems are opaque to the system (i.e. visible only to the user) and allow for a simple, hierarchical organizational structure of directories.

finding files nice declarative way file-seq of this dir

with find

Is this why content negotiation died / never really happened?