[RFC] "Documents Folder" icon in "system:/"

[James Richard Tyrer]

David Johnson wrote:
> On Tuesday 16 August 2005 01:07 am, James Richard Tyrer wrote:
> 
> 
>>I believe that the question at issue is only what to use as a
>>default.
> 
> Fair enough. But this doesn't explain why the Windows way is better than 
> the Unix way for a default. I remain unconvinced that there is a 
> problem with a plain traditional vanilla $HOME. I don't know of anyone 
> (besides you) who has ever complained about this.
> 
> My work used to have Solaris/CDE on the desktop for all users. I've thus 
> had an opportunity to see newbies from Windows thrown into the "deep 
> end" of a Unix-only environment. My observation shows that while they 
> may have had problems with the ugliness and clunkiness of CDE, but they 
> never had a problem with a home directory.
> 
> 
>>Yes, but ... (tm) it is newbies that defaults should be designed for
>>since they will not start changing defaults as soon as they first
>>login. When they are no longer newbies, they can change settings to
>>suit their needs.
> 
> 
> It is this philosophy which I have a problem with. Why must the newbie 
> be catered to? Why does the desktop design have to revolve around them?

I thought that what I said was almost a tautology.

But to answer your question: To quote Mr. Spock, because logic requires it.

> I am completely in favor of sensible defaults. But they need to be 
> *sensible*. That means they need to be appropriate for both the newbie 
> and the advanced user, and everyone in between. In the case of defining 
> a Documents directory, $HOME is the sensible default.

So, since you didn't answer what I thought was a very relevant question:

> I do not have a Mac with OS/X so it would help if you described how it
> does the directory tree for the user account directory and where it
> stores user files. 

[Even snipped it out. :-|]

I did some research and from what I found on Google, both current 
Windows and current Mac OS/X do not use HOME as the default location to 
store 'user files'.  Now it is true that they don't have the same method 
of not using HOME to store 'user files', but neither of them use it as 
the default location for 'user files'.  I think that either method is 
acceptable, but I see some advantages (for an open system) for the 
Windows method -- or better yet the current method which I use (with a 
$HOME/Files/Documents folder).  Even if the Mac OS/X method is better, 
we have to consider that it might now work as well on an open system as 
it does on the Mac, and that, therefore, something else might be better.

-- 
JRT