My grandpa was very interested in libraries. He had drawers full of index cards[1] for his personal library, organized using the Dewey decimal system[2].
When he first got a computer, back in Windows 3.11 days, it only seemed natural to use what he was familiar with. So he would store documents and emails in directories based on the Dewey decimal system.
However a problem quickly arose. A document might pertain to multiple topics. With index cards this was simple, you just noted the book or document on each of the relevant index cards.
With files however it was less clear. The only way he found was to save the same file in multiple directories. With the obvious nightmare of keeping it all in sync.
It got somewhat better when I taught him how to make shortcuts to the documents, but still...
Re:Johnny Decimal
by tokai on Tuesday June 13, 2023 @09:02AM
(#36309659)
Universal Decimal Classification solved this issue by being fully build to do faceted classification. It does take more work to create classes though, and the class notation can get very complex.
When he first got a computer, back in Windows 3.11 days, it only seemed natural to use what he was familiar with. So he would store documents and emails in directories based on the Dewey decimal system.
However a problem quickly arose. A document might pertain to multiple topics. With index cards this was simple, you just noted the book or document on each of the relevant index cards.
With files however it was less clear. The only way he found was to save the same file in multiple directories. With the obvious nightmare of keeping it all in sync.
It got somewhat better when I taught him how to make shortcuts to the documents, but still...
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_card
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Decimal_Classification