On Thu, Nov 02, 2023 at 11:17:01PM -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote: > On Thu, Nov 02, 2023 at 12:16:54PM -0500, John Hasler wrote: > > This was in the 1970s when the graphical UI was being invented. The > > idea was that the screen was to look like an actual desktop which might > > have actual file folders on it. Every icon was supposed to be an image > > of a familiar office object. In that context a directory is a phone > > book. > > The use of "directory" in the Unix sense predates graphical UI > development. It's called a directory because that's how it works, > and how it looks when you examine it at a low level.
[interesting stuff snipped] What was surprising to me is by how little Unix predates GUIs: Xerox Alto is 1973, Unix 1969. The desktop metaphor developed "on top" of Alto and was commercialised 1983 with the Star. I have two objections to the "folder" moniker. One coincides with yours (documentation talks about directories, you make user's learning path easier, and we do free software because we have a path to the system's internals, don't we?) The other is related: folder has become the culture of those who want to "sell you knowledge", i.e. of those whose business model is based on keeping you dumb. Clippy. Cheers -- t
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