"Folder" or "Directory"?

[Craig Drummond]

On Saturday 18 October 2003 16:50, Thiago Macieira wrote:
> Waldo Bastian wrote:
> >Yes I think so, I would give it to monday to give everyone a fair chance
> > to voice any objection. If no major objections have been raised by then
> > it can be changed to folder IMHO.

But whao says what objections are major? Not me...

> 1) for 30 years, it has been "directory"

And?

> 2) other existing programs call it "directory" (for instance, mc)

Console apps - KDE is a GUI. Different interfrace, different concepts. The 
console has no Trash.

> 3) we've been calling it "directory" all along, so this would keep
> consistency

Not consistent with the icon - hence the confusion.

> 4) the API names it "directory" (mkdir, chdir, rmdir, QDir,
> etc.)

Implementation details - these *should* be hidden from the user.

> 5) my personal opinion: I've learnt that name first and I don't like
> "folder"; I've never used that term when directories are concerned.
...
> In my view, "folder" is a misguided name. But no one is proposing we
> replace "file" with "document".

But we do *show* a folder - this is the *whole* point of my argument. Why use 
the same visual representation (and KDE *is* a visual desktop) with two 
different names? Sticking with "folder" - makes things easier cross-OS, 
surely a good thing?

Craig.