Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: open and save

From: John Cowan <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 06:28:21 -0500 (EST)

Bob LeChevalier scripsit:

> But in addition there is no obvious passage or 
> portal which is "open" or "closed" when a file is open or closed - the 
> metaphor works ONLY if you stick consistently to the drawer metaphor, and 
> then it doesn't work well (a drawer is probably "out" rather than "open" in 
> Lojban, a box lid or cupboard door might be "open").

The application of "open" and "close" to files is much older than the
GUI. AFAIK, it was first used in computing in COBOL, though I have not
been able to discover if OPEN and CLOSE were already in COBOL-60, or
were introduced in later versions.

But even before that, it was common business jargon to talk of "opening
a file on someone", which meant what computerists would call creating it
nowadays. In all cases, I think, the relevant metaphor is that of opening
a channel or connection between two things that were previously isolated
from each other.

-- 
John Cowan [email-masked]
http://www.ccil.org/~cowan http://www.reutershealth.com
Thor Heyerdahl recounts his attempt to prove Rudyard Kipling's theory
that the mongoose first came to India on a raft from Polynesia.
--blurb for _Rikki-Kon-Tiki-Tavi_