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The two metaphors are not as tightly coupled as you suggest. Even pre-computing, a "file" meant a collection of information and a "filing system" was a way of o
by dTal 9y ago
The two metaphors are not as tightly coupled as you suggest. Even pre-computing, a "file" meant a collection of information and a "filing system" was a way of organizing it - that didn't neccesarily involve paper folders. In fact, card files, from which we ultimately derive our computer term, were more usually stored in boxes.
I too prefer the term "directory". Apart from all UNIX tools using this terminology, it also more accurately reflects what it actually is - not a physical container for information, but a list of references to it - an association of names to addresses. A paper file cannot be in more than one folder, but it can easily appear in more than one directory. On a filesystem that allows hard links, this is a more useful conceptualization.
- krapp 9y ago>Apart from all UNIX tools using this terminology, it also more accurately reflects what it actually is - not a physical container for information, but a list of references to it - an association of names to addresses. Yes, but "directory" doesn't describe the way the UI appears to behave in a way that's more intuitive to the average non-technical end user than "folder." A "directory" could also describe a map or a phone book for most people.
- dTal 9y ago>"directory" doesn't describe the way the UI appears to behave That rather begs the question though, doesn't it? To a nontechnical user, the ship has sailed - everyone calls them "folders", the icons are ubiquitously pictures of file folders, and it would be terribly confusing to try and change it now. That doesn't mean it was the right choice though. I could imagine a world where the icons were little phone books, and the concept of a hard link didn't require a half-hour explanation.
- saint_fiasco 9y agoCheck the comment four levels above. Apparently it is not at all intuitive that folders can be inside other folders.
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoI don't understand that, the folder was picked for the filing cabinet metaphor. But in a filing cabinet system you have different cabinets, different drawers, different hanging files and various lower level arrangements - non-hanging folders (or drawer dividers), paper clips, staples. Perhaps they never saw a filing cabinet? Or never put something in a box, then in another box? When they put food in a cupboard do they empty it out of the current container first? <<Your house is a drive, every room is a "folder", every container in every room is a "folder", every container inside another is a "folder", every object is a "file".>> I've come across it, just assumed that no-one explained the metaphor to them.
- klibertp 9y ago> I've come across it, just assumed that no-one explained the metaphor to them. If it was this simple, there would be no people who struggle to understand recursion. And I know of quite a few.