Folder or Directory?

[Brunellus]

Pet peeve: I hate saying "folder" for "directory." I never thought of "directories" as "folders" until I'd seen my first GUI, and even then I only thought of the folder icon as meaning "directory."

Do you use one word or the other? Did you change from using one to another? When and why?

[blissfulpenguin]

I don't care if you're MS or *IX, Folder has 1 less syllable, and in computer lingo, the easier a thought can be conveyed, the better.
Just an opinion. What's yours?

[Brunellus]

I dont'k now. Maybe I'm just being stubborn. I learned "file" and "directory" when I was about 8, and have stuck with it.

[blissfulpenguin]

well, i guess i'm just a modernist in the sense that while generally i stay neutral in the wars such as vi vs. emacs, i tend to lean toward simplicity. While "folder" has the connotations of actually containing files which is illusory, because it's not a partition or a volume. "Directory" is more accurate in every sense, because it tells the cpu where to look on a volume for a file. Nonetheless, I usually say "folder," because it is easier.

So I think the choice lies somewhere between aesthetics and logic for me. I uphold both equally.

[shining]

Where is folder used, and where is directory used?
I never really payed attention.

It's funny, it seems qt file dialog has "One directory up", and "Create New Folder"
What is used in nautilus, konqueror, windows and mac os (I've none of these at immediate disposition)?
Is directory an older term? if so, when and where did folder appear?

I guess cd means "change directory" and I assume it's there for a while on *nix, and it is in dos too.

[Virogenesis]

mainly say directory or dir for start while on irc, very rare for me to say folder but when giving advice I sometimes say folder but that is very rare.

[MedivhX]

I call it folder. Like agent Molder. LOL!!!

[raublekick]

when in the context of a CLI, i use directory, because it seems more fitting in that context. i tend to use folder in the context of a file-browser (Nautilus, Konquerer, etc...) because file-browsers are graphical, organizational representations of filesystems and it seems more fitting to use folder because you "see" the manifestation of a directory in a graphical form.

[Brunellus]

Where is folder used, and where is directory used?
I never really payed attention.

It's funny, it seems qt file dialog has "One directory up", and "Create New Folder"
What is used in nautilus, konqueror, windows and mac os (I've none of these at immediate disposition)?
Is directory an older term? if so, when and where did folder appear?

I guess cd means "change directory" and I assume it's there for a while on *nix, and it is in dos too.

directory is the older term; "folder" only came in with graphical user interfaces--GEM, AmigaOS, Macintosh, and so forth.

I guess I've never left my MS-DOS biases behind, and Linux and bash just reinforce them. cd, pwd, mkdir... and so forth.

[jimcooncat]

If a directory refers an organized listing, I guess I have folders.