Talk:Directory (computing)

Folder vs Directory

Can we get this moved to Directory instead of Folder? Folder presents an unpleasantly Windows-centric view of things and imo isn't technically correct. --ex-parrot (talk) 01:35, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

The term itself and the visual concept of "folders" are used by Windows, Apple, various Linux GUIs, cell phones, digital video recorders, SatNav and other electronic devices with GUIs that also have user storage. Folders are not at all Windows-centric but are a concept familiar to most users of electronic devices, far more so than "directory" which is a term mostly (and correctly) used by computing professionals and enthusiasts. Since everyone who understands the term "directory" also understands "folder" but not vice versa, so it makes sense for this to remain as Folder. Andymilli 15.56, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

The trouble with this page is that it starts by talking about folders, then moves to directories, then back to why they are referred to as folders. Directories are part of the structure of the file system hierarchy. Folders are representation of those directories expressed in a way that is generally easier for people to understand. The main focus of the page should be about the structural definition and description of the file system hierarchy, and should then be followed by an explanation of the current usage of 'folder' to simplify understanding of directories.Caleneledh (talk) 01:41, 7 May 2012 (UTC)

Nevermind, this article is pretty broken. I'll fix it up properly later then move it. ex-parrot (talk) 01:38, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Question: Is there actually a maximum amount of data a 'folder' under a particular operating system can hold?

More information about directories (file systems) can be found in this old version of "directory". Specifically, information about folders appears to have been lost when the page was converted to disambiguation (I haven't been able to find those paragraphs back so far at least). Kim Bruning 13:49, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Does everyone like the move? If not, let's move it back! --Uncle Ed 17:14, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

"Thousands" seemed like a small number. Just counting files on my laptop alone, I found over 700K files, so updated to hundreds of thousands. --Kim Bruning 16:37, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Question

i want to know about direcory structure in unix

History

I really would like to know who first coined the "folder" metaphor. Was it originally Apple ? Or did they get it from Xerox PARC ? Maybe it was Susan Kare who thought of it when drawing the first files... —Preceding unsigned comment added by XApple (talk) 17:11, May 2, 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Mac OS X folder.png

Image:Mac OS X folder.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot 04:44, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Collecting together some images from commons ...

, , ... um... no <- remove new? <- same here

I want to draw directory trees :-)

--Kim Bruning (talk) 23:39, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes pages like these could benefit from quickly understood images.talk 22:06, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Move to 'directory'

Might this page be better titled as "Directory (computing)"? If I recall correctly, directory was the original name in the hierarchical system. Scienceman123 talk 05:58, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Moved to "Directory (computing)". Scienceman123 talk 14:37, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

+1 to a move to where it belongs.KiloByte (talk) 22:43, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

It should be title "Directory"

This article is all messed up. It sounds like it was written by someone who had no idea what they were talking about, and because directory was the original term, it should the title of the article.

And there is NO difference between the two, at least originally meant. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Anikom15 (talk • contribs) 17:56, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Amen to that. Obviously written by someone who is not conversant with the subject. BTW the correct term is directory, not "folder." The latter is Windows-speak for people who don't know anything about computer operating systems. 38.69.12.6 (talk) 05:50, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

"Everything Is a File in Unix"

Reference 3 contains a broken link apparently to an article titled "Everything Is a File in Unix". I'm not familiar with the referenced article, but I wonder if this is it: http://www.bga.org/~lessem/psyc5112/usail/concepts/filesystems/everything-is-a-file.html. Not a huge deal, but I thought I'd bring it up in case anyone knows of a replacement link. (Googling on "everything is a file in unix" brings up lots of hits -- even with the enclosing quotes to force an exact search -- so it's hard to know if the referenced article is out there.) Peytonbland (talk) 21:42, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

"Folder" references

All uses of the word folder have been changed to the correct term, which is directory. The only instances of folder that weren't changed were those where the term is relevant. Bigdumbdinosaur (talk) 06:26, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

Well, let's be careful here. The technically most correct term is "file directory", since "directory" by itself can also be used to refer to things like "LDAP" and "catalog". The term "folder" is a recent invention, which if I'm not mistaken came first from the Apple/Mac world and was then later adopted by Microsoft/Windows. Personally, I would rather see "Folder (computing)" redirect to the page "Dirctory (computing)", in other words, have the layman's term redirect to the (more correct?) technical term. In any case, I'm not sure it's appropriate for an article named "Folder" to constantly avoid using the word "folder" itself in the text. — Loadmaster (talk) 15:47, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

Well, unlike the overwhelming majority of the folks who write things about computing on Wikipedia, I've been in the computing industry since the days of PDP-1s—since the days when we used Tele-Types to write code and Bill Gates was picking his nose as a freshman in high school. I have *never* heard the term "file directory" used by anyone except academics. Also, keep in mind that the term "directory" was in use long before things like LDAP came into being.

I agree that your suggested redirect be put into place. However, I strongly disagree with using a "dumbed down" term like folder to describe what the industry has called a directory since the days of Multics (and even before).

The term "folder" is a recent invention, which if I'm not mistaken came first from the Apple/Mac world and was then later adopted by Microsoft/Windows.

The first use apparently was with the Apple Lisa. You have to understand more than a few Apple employees in those days had a relatively narrow view of the computing universe and had not been exposed to large scale systems. So rather than sticking with already established terminology standards, they made them up as they went. Much of the same nonsense occurred in the Commodore 8 bit world, where many of the would-be software writers didn't even know that PETSCII was an aberration of ASCII.

Bigdumbdinosaur (talk) 06:00, 1 August 2012 (UTC)