> 1) Why do we need special message ids? Couldn't we just use the offset into
> the messages file? 

Wow, that's a nice idea!  The only tricky part is with method
compaction, but it's not *that* hard.



> 2) Why not use ImageSegments to save the index on disk? 

I've actually tried this twice and given up in frustration.  I agree
that it's a wonderful solution: fast, simple, and natural.  However, I
kept finding excess in-pointers which kept the whole index from going
out.  Maybe someone cleverer or more patient or both could make this
work.


-Lex