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I don't use GNOME, but...I don't use GNOME, but...Posted Jan 27, 2010 8:31 UTC (Wed) by michaeljt (subscriber, #39183)In reply to: I don't use GNOME, but... by dskoll Parent article: Stormy Peters: What should the GNOME Foundation accomplish in 2010?
Mostly agree there, but about the folder vs directory thing - I strongly hold the position that one
should never use more complex/technical language if there is a simpler way of saying things (one that will not confuse anyone of course). Hands up anyone here who doesn't know what a folder means in the context of files?
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I don't use GNOME, but... Posted Jan 27, 2010 8:46 UTC (Wed) by fperrin (guest, #61941) [Link] I'm not a native English speaker, but... Don't folder and directory both come from The Real World, and both refer to a way of organizing subitems ? According to Wiktionary :
From this, it could even by argued that "folder" is actually more precise than "directory"... So, why 1) is "folder" such a bad synonym for "directory" according to GP, 2) is "directory" a more complex/technical word for "folder" according to parent ?
I don't use GNOME, but... Posted Jan 27, 2010 9:14 UTC (Wed) by dgm (subscriber, #49227) [Link]
Not a native English speaker too, and for me both are at about the same level of "intuitiveness". I mean, come on, this kind of discussion is sterile. The fact is that a disk folder/directory is only barely related to the real counter-part. Nobody is going to be fooled by calling it one or the other.
I suppose people prefer arguing these kind of little details because it's easier than get to the real problems.
I don't use GNOME, but... Posted Jan 27, 2010 9:29 UTC (Wed) by gowen (guest, #23914) [Link] I am a native english speaker, but I agree entirely. Also, "Folder" has an intuitive visual icon, whereas directory does not (what would it be, a picture of a telephone directory?). Even file managers that call them directories, tend to use icons that look like folders.
I don't use GNOME, but... Posted Jan 27, 2010 16:27 UTC (Wed) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]
The whole 'directory'/'folder' concept is just shit all around. It's a bad
But it's one we are stuck with.
Folders make sense in Gnome because not everything you see as a folder is
There are all sorts of little things like that. It is really very bad and
You can thank Microsoft and Apple for this.
I don't use GNOME, but... Posted Jan 27, 2010 9:24 UTC (Wed) by michaeljt (subscriber, #39183) [Link]
Actually, I'm not quite sure about the configurable editor for Evolution either. The Unix way of
loading the entire e-mail with headers, attachments and all into a general purpose editor and letting you edit and exit is rather ugly. Perhaps an editor better designed for that sort of integration would be nicer though.
I don't use GNOME, but... Posted Jan 27, 2010 15:27 UTC (Wed) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link] The "It's All Text" plugin for Thunderbird is a good example of nice integration of an external editor. There's no reason Evolution couldn't do it the same way.
I don't use GNOME, but... Posted Jan 27, 2010 15:26 UTC (Wed) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link] The problem is that UNIX systems have been calling directories "directories" since the beginning. The command to change directories is cd, not cf. The library function to open a directory is opendir, not openfolder. And it's mkdir, not mkfolder. Using the term "folder" introduces unnecessary inconsistency.
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