Re: Virtual Directory Structure

[temp123 <temp123 brindabella org>]

> From: Jörg Rathlev <joerg jrsoftware de>
>
> This makes sure that nothing is hidden, plus it makes it easier for 
> experienced users to help a newbie. Filename text boxes etc. could 
> continue to show the normal folder names. And I don't think it gets much 
> more difficult for newbies. Actually, it's quite similar to web browsing, 
> where the text of a hyperlink is not equal to the name of the referenced file.


The web browsing analogy reminds me of virtual web hosting - such as when 
www.myhost.com is hosted under a directory 
like  /home/users/~user/dir1/dir2/.  The directory structure under 
www.myhost.com is abstracted from the actual directory structure.

Similarly, i suppose my original post was about just the file manager 
presenting (serving?) to a user an abstracted structure.  Perhaps each user 
would see their own virtual *host* like:

[-] joeblow.localhost.localdomain  =  /home/joeblow
     [+] Desktop = /home/joeblow/Desktop
     [+] Documents = /home/joeblow/Documents
     ...
     [-] System  =  /
          [-] home/
               [-] joeblow/
                    [+] Desktop
                    [+] Documents
     ...
     [+] Removable media   /mnt/
     [+] Hardware Devices   /dev/
     file1.txt


It's logical, when looking for what you want, to start at the top.  The 
sort of users who don't administer the system would prefer the system stuff 
to be nested rather than the files they typically use.  Clearly, these are 
the sort of user that this sort of thing would be aimed at.

On the other hand, i guess it doesn't amount to much more than what the MS 
file manager does.  In tree view, it makes "My Computer" look like a *real* 
directory hanging beneath the user's "Desktop" which is at the top - it 
just *displays* a couple of things above c:\ for ease of user access.  In 
it's simplest form the file manager need only *display* /home/joeblow at 
the top and stick "/" under a bogus "System" folder.

Trivial deception?

Chris