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When was the term ‘directory’ replaced by ‘folder’?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- scottmcdot 4y agoR still uses it. E.g., getwd() gets current working directory.
- ihatepython 4y agoWhat would be the visual representation of a 'directory'? For me, it's 'directory' for cli, and 'folder' for gui. Except for 'Directory Opus', it still makes sense to say 'directory'.
- dragonwriter 4y ago> What would be the visual representation of a 'directory'? A list of names of things, with associated information, either text or pictorial. Which is exactly what both GUIs and CLIs tend to give you for “folders”.
- andrewfromx 4y agooh this must be from the xerox GUI the mac got circa 1983?
- quickthrower2 4y agomy memory is Windows 95 made them folders and they were directories before. At least in MS land.
- dgreensp 4y agoIn the 90s, as I remember it, Macs didn’t have anything called a directory, while Windows and Unix-based OSes had only directories (at least among geeks). I still use “directory” today if it’s in a Windows, Linux, or general context; “folder” in a Mac context. But I guess Windows switched to “folder” too at some point. But also, Macs are now BSD-based and I’m a programmer, so it’s directories when talking about command-line stuff. Windows got “folder” by way of Macs, I’m pretty sure,
- steve1977 4y agoWindows got “windows” by way of Macs, so that’s not very surprising.
- ahartmetz 4y agoBoth got "windows" by way of Xerox.
- steve1977 4y agoI'm not sure how much Windows was directly influenced by the work of Xerox and not by Mac OS (also considering MS was basically on board on the Macintosh from day one). Let's say Apple paved the way for Microsoft in terms of economic viability of a GUI ;)
- twoodfin 4y agoI was surprised to learn that the most direct lineage of the “folder” metaphor in Windows 95 (the first Windows which featured it in its modern form) was likely via NeXTStep. This is derived from Steve Sinofsky’s excellent Substack[1], which walks carefully through the history of Windows 4.0/Chicago/95 and unambiguously describes Gates’ competitive target as NeXT & Jobs. Once I read this, it was hard to un-see how obviously Win95 was inspired by NeXTStep in both design and aesthetics. [1] https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/ https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/
- karmakaze 4y agoEverything ultimately came from Xerox starting with icons in 1975 and the entire Xerox Star system with folders in 1981. [0] https://www.howtogeek.com/769913/the-computer-folder-is-40-how-the-xerox-star-created-the-desktop/ https://www.howtogeek.com/769913/the-computer-folder-is-40-h...
- 8bitsrule 4y agoYep, after Jobs visited PARC, there was no stopping him. Next thing you know, the C-64 had GEOS.
- gompertz 4y agoIs what's worse is SharePoint has also introduced the term "library", which is really just a root level directory.
- jackvalentine 4y agoInteresting answers in the article with some nuance and history but for most people it was when Windows 95 came out - DOS and Windows 3.1’s winfile[1] utility referred to them as directories. When Windows 95 came out it became folders. [1]https://github.com/microsoft/winfile https://github.com/microsoft/winfile
- BooneJS 4y agoFor whatever reason (Win95? MacOS?) I still to refer to them as Folders in a GUI but a Directory in a terminal.
- hackrnusr 4y agoI think both are still commonly used today.
- steve1977 4y agoIt was also called folder in Atari TOS, which was clearly inspired by Mac OS as well.
- richardjam73 4y agoIt is both on the Atari ST The user interface shows folders but the programming manuals refer to directories. In the File menu in TOS 2.06 it lists both Create Folder... and Close Directory
- AlyssaRowan 4y agoThat was Digital Research’s GEM, which Atari had licenced for the GUI of TOS (they threw it together quite quickly). There was a whole thing about GEM and inspiration from Xerox PARC and Apple; that’s largely the reason why the Atari version was the only version that really made it to any kind of brief success.
- steve1977 4y agoI vaguely remember seeing GEM even used on DOS PCs back in the early 90s.
- NikkiA 4y agoIt was the only way to use a couple of very early DTP packages (Timeworks being the one I remember). Of course, by then it was after GEM 2 and had been neutered by the lawsuit which forced it to abandon the desktop metaphor for 2 permanently tiled windows
- function_seven 4y agoI think both terms are inferior to what Amiga used: “Drawers”. Truly the biggest loss when Commodore went bankrupt. (My first GUI growing up)
- nicky0 4y agoI has an Amiga as a kid and I remember in an IT class (where everything was Windows), I started talking about putting files in drawers and the teacher looked me like I had had two heads.
- royjacobs 4y agoTo be fair, having the concept of a desktop matches quite well with the concept of a folder. On the Amiga, you didn't have a desktop per se, but a Workbench. A Workbench has drawers. The analogy breaks down somewhat, since I can't pull down my real-world workbench to reveal a red and white bouncing ball. Unfortunately.
- function_seven 4y agoOh yeah the furniture theme was consistent :) But the other way that metaphor broke was when nesting drawers inside other drawers. With folders that makes sense; at least a little bit. I know that I have actually nested file folders before in real life but I’ve never installed a drawer inside my drawer. But that’s OK, my love for Amiga is unconditional.
- Someone 4y agoI disagree. You can put folders inside folders, but putting a drawer inside another drawer?
- glandium 4y agoGoogle image "drawer in a drawer" will give you some examples. You won't find deep recursive hierarchies, though.
- FrontierPsych 4y agoI used the term "directories" until about 5 years ago. As I tried to explain things to people, they didn't know what the hell I was talking about when I said "directories." So I had to check that shit and start using "folders" so that I could communicate with people.
- Yaggo 4y agoHaha, same here. I also found that some younger developers use GUI for navigating and manipulating the filesystem, instead of terminal. Made me a bit shocked first, just like the word “folder”, which I considered a “layman” word used by non-techies.
- ThunderSizzle 4y agoI use the file system, but rarely use the mouse on it. I wouldn't mind a combination between a file explorer and a terminal window.
- djmips 4y agoSimilar to the question when did 'app' replace 'program'.
- richardjam73 4y agoapp which is short for application is actually an old term from at least the 1970's. I believe the usage may come from a computer program that is applied to specific problem. You get the term computer application and program application with the latter eventually evolving to just application. For example in Byte January 1977 "What if you just wrote a nifty new program that runs in 16 K but your system only has 8 K to spare? Do you buy another 8 K before you run this? Ofcourse not. You logically break the program into smaller pieces, which are stored in a direct access device. When your application comes to need a program segment which is not in main memory, it goes out to the direct access storage device and loads the needed segment. Since the maximum delay of an inexpensive floppy unit is about 0.75 second and it has a data rate of 250 K bytes per second, there will be little pause before the program is again executing. Further, most of the delay is from arm positioning motions, so if all the data and program segments are on adjacent tracks the delay will typically average less than 1/30 of a second. Even ifa person is waiting for the results, a large amount of such swapping can go on before the wait gets excessive."
- dogleash 4y agohttps://i.imgur.com/wfrkITJ.png https://i.imgur.com/wfrkITJ.png
- yakubin 4y agoThey are not synonyms. Kernels, firmware, drivers, boot loaders are all programs, but they aren’t apps.
- djmips 4y agoMaybe we are appers and not programmers.
- Viliam1234 4y agoapp apes, not code monkeys