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What makes you think that a hierarchy is the right way to represent shared data? I don't use a hierarchy to organize my documents, I use search. The problem wit
by raganwald 16y ago
What makes you think that a hierarchy is the right way to represent shared data? I don't use a hierarchy to organize my documents, I use search. The problem with a hierarchy is that it appeals to ontologists, people who like to organize things in one and exactly one way, and they like to do it up front.
Search, and its cousin Query, are the other way of looking at things: Put everything somewhere and give me a way to get what I want. I predict that if and when Apple provides something along the lines of shared data, it will look more like Microsoft's original vision for WinFS than the Finder.
Or maybe... just maybe... it will look like Newton's soup ;-)
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/WinFS https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/WinFS
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Soup_(Apple_Newton) https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Soup_(Apple_N...
- r00fus 16y agoHear, hear. Since forever, I've used my ~ folder as pretty much my whole document base, and use search tools to sift through the contents. I add simply ontology when specific tools require their own unpolluted namespace (ie, pine/mail) or need to be installed for multiple users (local box binaries). iOS devices (as an example) just take this to the next level. In fact, I don't even use the main screen for launching many apps, I just type in the search screen to get it. If I could speak it in a seamless way, I'd do that instead.
- oconnore 16y agoI never wrote that hierarchy is the only way to organize data. Search and tagging are very important, too. But where did you get the idea that hierarchies are useless?