As a followup to the multi-branching threads about reiser4, I wouldHow are they different? Having a distinguished file is consistent with the reiser4 approach.
like to present this patch for discussion and exploration.
It implements files with fork (which are quite different to files that
provide different views via a subdirectory structure).
See Documentation/filesystems/forks.txt (after applying the patch) for more detail.
This is not "how it should be done" but rather "how it could be done",
and is intended primarily to provide a base for experimentation and
exploration.
Below is a sample of what can be done, and then the patch.
NeilBrown