That's because IBM didn't like the way they were used in MacOS, so they
restricted the amount of information storable in EAs (64K max IIRC ---
that's total, not per EA).
That said, the problem with storing the metadata with the file is that
on a multiuser OS different people may want different associations,
different icons, etc.for the same file. So it has to be stored per
user, not per file. Also, how do you assign icons to files which are
readable but not writeable by the current user? Windows, OS/2, etc.
don't need to deal with this (well, NT could, but Microsoft took their
usual "we'll decide what's best" route); Unix-like systems (including
Linux) do.
--
brandon s. allbery [os/2][linux][solaris][japh] allbery@kf8nh.apk.net
system administrator [WAY too many hats] allbery@ece.cmu.edu
carnegie mellon / electrical and computer engineering KF8NH
We are Linux. Resistance is an indication that you missed the point.
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