"Loris Bennett" <loris.benn...@fu-berlin.de> wrote: > <to...@tuxteam.de> writes: > > > On Thu, Nov 02, 2023 at 09:12:45AM -0500, John Hasler wrote: > >> Loris Bennett wrote: > >> > What's the objection to 'folder'? I don't use it myself, but it > >> > seems fairly reasonable to me. Many desktop environments use an > >> > old hanging folder icon in their file browsers. > >> > >> tomas writes: > >> > This is Microsoft jargon. > >> > >> It comes from the Xerox "desktop metaphor". The idea was to hide > >> scary technical jargon behind familiar office jargon. > > > > Yup -- Wikipedia says either Xerox or SRI. > > Personally I don't see "directory" as being more scary or technical > than "folder". They are both words from the pre-computer age which > have been repurposed, just as the term "computer" now no longer > refers to a human who performs computations.
While I belong to the 'directory is the correct term' school of thought, I can see how the idea of a folder is a thing that contains other things (and specifically files sometimes) appeals, whilst a [telephone] directory is just a thick book.
