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"Folders" - outdated nomenclature

Story: Command Line | Change The Owner Of Files And Folders | chownTotal Replies: 1
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phsolide

Aug 20, 2011
5:51 PM EDT 		I really wish that the early 90s "desktop metaphor" had not turned the perfeectly serviceable "directory" into the watered-down babytalk "folder".

Now that we've (mostly) acheived a paperless office, the term "folder" has no intrinsic meaning, and less meaning that a more abstract term like "directory".

The "desktop metaphor" was never very good in the first place, lacking, as it did, a photocopier icon for making copies of "documents", box icons for moving more than a few "documents" from one "folder" to another "folder", and no pencil tray on the "desktop". Grossly imperfect.

Before you whine about how that's carrying a metaphor too far, think about it. Why isn't renaming "directory" into "folder" also carrying it too far?
patrokov

Aug 21, 2011
12:53 AM EDT 		As long as we're at it, should change the word file to entry? After all, file is part of a desktop metaphor as well. What would one expect to find in directories? Files or entries?

In all seriousness, though, I think the reason folder stuck so well is that it's a shorter, easier to say word as well as forming an alliteration with the word file.

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