Comment by oblio 5 days ago
Or accept the fact that we're in 2025 and not follow Unix conventions from when paper and printer ink were expensive and they were printing out listings, and just name the thing "source".
I've gotten used to it, obviously - as someone with a career in IT for 20 years - but /etc & co. annoy me to no end. I know it will never change, I know why it won't change, I know GoboLinux will be just an interesting experiment, but it's still annoying.
Path length is still a thing in MS Windows, so be careful ;)
Depends on the WinAPI used... I still use C:/src instead of C:/Users/MyUser/src for that reason when working in windows all the same though. Too many unixy utils don't leverage the apis with the longer path, not to mention not supporting the internal certificate store and proxy config.
1. Yes, I have, if you re-read my comment.
2. I don't want to fight extreme positions which I did not make. Read this:
https://gobolinux.org/at_a_glance.html
I didn't say paths have to have spaces, etc. Just be reasonable and <<use full words in the year of our lord 2025>>.
Anything with a capital letter requires hitting two keys: Shift and then the desired letter. Thus /Programs requires 10 keystrokes rather than 9. Even worse, since the capital letter is at the beginning of the directory name, I have to type it and am unable to rely on tab-completion.
/Programs with its ten keystrokes is over twice the keystrokes of /bin and its four. Short names are quicker to type and require less effort. Given that to a first approximation I spend my entire life typing on a keyboard, I very much wish to optimise that experience.
The first shell listing starts with `cd` and `ls`, the former being run in `~`. What does that weird `~` mean? Very strange.
More seriously, their file system is still case-sensitive, and inside /Programs they have `Iptables` and `Fontconfig`, naively capitalized, but also `OpenOffice` and `HTTPD`.
Not to mention that inside each program folder are `man` and `bin` as usual. I'm going to suggest the point of that article is structure and organization, not naming.
Nobody reasonable complains about a three-letter abbreviation you can type with one hand. For a path you're either accessing a lot or never at all, it makes complete sense.
What's wrong with spaces? Macs support them since 80s. The only problem with spaces is caused by *nix, *nix shells, basically by Linux.
I think paths need to have emojis too in order to represent the emotional state of the person who created them in the year of our memelord 2025.
$HOME/accept/the/fact/that/were/in/2025/and/not/follow/unix/conventions/from/when/paper/and/printer/ink/were/expensive/and/they/were/printing/out/listings/and/just/name/the/thing/source/main.cwe're -> we are
I've -> I have
& -> and
co. -> company
won't -> will not
it's -> it is
Spaces break things only in Lnux; Mac and Windows support them since beginning. Why should we write without spaces as if we were in 5th century?
Spaces are avoided on base Linux systems because they're clunky for terminals more than fear of outright breaking things. To the extent spaces there do break things, that also happens on Mac and Windows for the same reasons (hence ProgramData being conspicuously space-less).
The abbreviations I wrote are unambiguous. When I first learned about Unix, I basically guessed - I assume as most first timers do - that the folder is basically the location of miscellaneous files ("et caetera").
Oh, let alone the fact that a bunch of the abbreviations are utterly non-intuitive to first timers.
/bin - binaries - nobody born after circa 1980 calls them that anymore. Executables, applications, apps, etc.
/boot - from a lame Baron Munchausen joke from 1970. Should probably be /startup.
/dev - dev is SUPER commonly used for "development". Easy enough to solve as /devices.
/home - okish, probably one of the best named that are actually in there. I'm shocked it's not /ho or /hm.
/lib - reasonable. Though these days in the US it might trigger political feelings :-p
/media - new and reasonable.
/mnt - the whole metaphor of "mounting" is... debatable.https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/144012-unix-sex/
/opt - what does this even do? Optional? Optional WHAT? Absolutely 0 semantic info provided by the name.
Anyway, a lot of people have done this criticism better than me and it's boring at this point.
Call it whatever you like. I don't care and that clearly wasn't the point of my comment.
One thing I've learnt, though, is unless you have a very good reason to try to change language you should just talk the same language as everyone else. I don't like the American short billion. It makes no sense and it's less useful. But that's what I use because I speak English and that's what we use now. If I see a src/ directory I know exactly what it is. If I see source/ it will give me pause. Get over it IMO.
While the meaning of "source" may be intuitively obvious, it's still relatively unfamiliar as "src" is far more prevalent than "source" when referring to source files. While "id est" may be equivalent to "i.e.", you'd still naturally pause when reading text using the former instead of the latter, because the latter is far more prevalent in usage than the former.
/Library/System/Applications/Core/Security/Daemons.app/Framework/Version 4.6.2/Let's not go full Apple please.
Have you considered that there are other metrics people are optimizing for nowadays? Perhaps typeability, screen real estate, familiarity/convention, etc.? Do you really want /User Files/Bob's Files/Coding Projects/Python Projects/Bob's Cool Python Library/Source Code/Model Files/SomeObject.py?