Files Are Hard
PG was quite proud of having just used the file system as a database with Viaweb, claiming that "The Unix file system is pretty good at not losing your data, especially if you put the files on a Netapp." His entire response is worth reading in light of the above article, if only to get a taste of how simultaneously arrogant and clueless PG can be: <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/vwfaq.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.paulgraham.com/vwfaq.html</a><p>PG and company still think this is a great idea, because the software this forum runs on apparently also does the file system-as-database thing.<p>No wonder Viaweb was rewritten in C++.<p>EDIT: to those downvoting, my characterization of PG's response is correct. Its arrogance is undeniable, with its air of "look how smart I am; I see through the marketing hype everyone else falls for," as is its cluelessness, with PG advocating practices that will cause data loss. Viaweb was probably a buggy, unstable mess that needed a rewrite.