Looking for Dired mode to comment directory listing

[Alan]

At one time, 4dos, an alternate M$DOG shell, enabled a file listing
command to include a comment.  In the days of 8+3 filenames, this was
simple feature improved my work output considerably.  Later on, GNU/
Linux with extremely long filenames worked ok, and I was able to
forget about 4dos.

It occurs to me, however, that it might be possible to do a similar
thing with dired, transparently.  Is it currently possible?  I saw an
ipa.el, In Pace Annotations,  on the emacs.sources group/list (http://
www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/emacs/ipa.el), enabling commentary
annotations  to be saved in separate files, and viewed transparently.
To use this feature for directory listings, however, it would be
necessary to save the listing to a file.  Or would it?

I have received comments in the past, that long filenames are enough.
I could still use other kinds of comments, for example, with photos,
and it would seem to be more convenient.

Thanks for any ideas.

Alan