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Wondering out loud if Eliha Root with this invention is also the origin of the word root for base off a file system. Anybody know?
by zoom6628 5y ago
Wondering out loud if Eliha Root with this invention is also the origin of the word root for base off a file system. Anybody know?
- wolfgang42 5y agoI strongly suspect that the answer is ‘no,’ though it is fun to think about. The etymology I’ve always heard is simply that the filesystem is a mathematical tree, with all of the metaphor that comes with it: it’s convenient to have ready terms such as ‘branch’ and ‘leaf’ (though in a file system those are generally supplanted by ‘directory’ and ‘file’ respectively)—and, of course, a ‘root’ at the bottom from which springs everything else.