David,
Thanks for your detail reminder of this complicated system. And to think, I
programmed in DOS for many years before programming in windows.
"David Candy" <.> wrote in message
You are under a misapprehension. What you think is true only up to Windows
3.11. From 95 onwards Explorer is a namespace browser not a file manager.
Each and every folder you go to loads a special viewer program for that
folder. Folders may not be real.
Eg There is no My Computer Folder. That is a program that loads that shows
some devices (mainly hard drives) you have.
Fonts folder also doesn't show files, it shows a Installed Fonts Viewer -
the fonts themselves may or maynot be in that folder (usually they are but
don't have to be - they will look like they are there).
Scheduled Tasks is a Task Scheduler viewer. Any files it needs are stored in
C:\windows\tasks but viewing this folder or viewing it in Control Panel
(another folder that isn't real) show a scheduled tasks program.
When you view Temporary Internet Files you probably see lots - but there are
no files in the folder really. They are stored in sub folders and cookies
you see are in c:\windows\cookies (or the profile path equiv). But windows
loads a Temp Internet Files viewer when you go to that folder and the TIF
viewer only shows files it knows about (1/2 downloaded pages aren't shown,
files created by OE aren't shown), and it looks in ALL the places files of
interest to Temp Internet Files to present a view to you of USUABLE files to
you.
Explorer is a namespace browser. Next version of windows your documents
won't be stored in folders at all. They will be in something like MS Accesss
but will appear as if they are in folders. Search will be fast and powerful
for you documents.
This is to remove technical details of how computers work (file and folders)
from how users work. Less with XP compared to Dos but still very
significant, users are forced to work how the programmers decided to
implement a feature rather than the task the user was trying to perform.
The goal is to have the computer do what it does and the user do what they
want without having to think of how the MS programmers implemented it. Think
of a VCR remote control (mine crashes and I take the batteries out to reboot
it). Has anyone suggested you should poke about in it's operating system.
No. It is just supposed start/stop the video and you have no idea who wrote
the software or how they implemented it. And nor do you care.
This is where MS has been taking us for 10 years now. And we aren't even 1/2
way there.
But most folderes are viewed with a file viewer component (if there is no
special viewer for that folder you get a file viewer viewer).
If you view a web page you are viewing the special Internet folder (which
was in the folder tree in Win 95 but hidden in later versions).
The longer people have used computers the more bizarre this sounds as us Dos
users are used to thinking in programmers terms in how to use a computer.
It's harder to unlearn something than to learn something new.
The other point is MS allows users to form their own mental models of
windows, There is no attempt to force you to think accurately. If you think
windows work because the moon is made of cheese MS is happy for you to think
that. If it works for you then they think they have done a great job. [I
strongly disagree with this part - after all, your model was a Dos model and
it was hindering you in your task - though it is also a task that shouldn't
have been necessary for you to do at all].
