An interesting though just occurred to me... I wonder how many users have never looked in column view, particularly, or even list view, and have never come face to face with an actual UNIX file path?
I would venture a
LOT. Maybe a majority. My son always uses List view and my grandson is addicted to icon view. My wife started out with icon view and it took forever for her to figure out that just because she created a file in Word, the file did not have to actually be in a folder labeled Word or that there was any difference between that folder and the application. Once she caught on to a hierarchical data organization existing apart from the application, she readily accepted and started using column view. For each of them their view of preference is the only one that makes sense and while I understand the icon and list views, they drive me crazy. I sometimes use Cover flow in iTunes but other than that to me it is a waste, but I am convinced there are others who wouldn't want to be without it.
The point is Apple provides a rich variety of ways to visualize data structures and between the icon, list, column, and cover flow views most users can find an option that
visually matches their way of viewing data. And that works were everyone involved can actually see the displayed data structure. Thinking about it, iOS devices only have the icon view and I can tolerate it there. but it seems to enforce a more simplistic view of data structures.
This still leaves the problem of
verbally describing those data structures to someone else. I suppose it would be possible to always show a screenshot of the view, but that would be cumbersome and impractical or perhaps impractically cumbersome. Which brings us back to the need for a commonly accepted notation such as that used in Unix. Deniro has expressed a desire for a less formal notation but that is fraught with the possibility of error and lots of misunderstanding. Any notation must be sufficiently unique that it is unlikely to be confused with other notation schemes and accepted widely enough to communicate accurately with a huge variety of users and ideally directly comprehended by the operating system. Developing that sort of notational system is no small task and takes lots of effort, widely recognized standards, and as a practical matter years of honing and refinement. All of which forces me back to the Unix path notation conventions.
