Directories

Directory structure... Sounds scary, doesn't it? Well, it's not. It's easy. Directory is just another name for Folder. You do know what a Folder is, right? You don't? Well, we are in trouble here, aren't we... In that case, say hello to Mr. Folder.

Mr. Folder is your friend. He likes you, and he wants to help you keep things organized. Mr. Folder can hold web pages, and images, and even other folders. You can have a folder for all of your images... or a folder for assignments from one particular class... or a folder for stylesheets... Anything you want.

"But what," I know you're asking yourself as you bang you head against the keyboard, "is directory structure?". Well, first, stop banging your head against that keyboard... those things cost money, you know. Think of it this way. You start with a folder. Inside that folder is another folder. And inside that folder is another folder... And inside each of those folders are even more folders... Sort of like those weird little Russian dolls...

So how do we navigate through a maze like that? Simple. We follow the Path.

The path is just the name of the first folder, followed by a slash, and then the name of the next folder, then a slash, and so on. For example, let's open Mr. Folder and see what's inside:

Just look at that... Mr. Folder has three more folders inside of him! Right now, Mr. Folder is as far as we have gone... so our path is just "C:/Folder" (C: is the name of the disk where Mr. Folder lives on your local computer). Let's look inside another folder, shall we? How about the one called "csc121"?

Well, well, well... More folders! Now our path is "C:/Folder/csc121". We could keep going on and on like this forever! Each time you move into a new folder, your path gets longer. Likewise, if you were to open a file, instead of a folder, that file's name would get stuck onto the end of your path. If we opened "csc121.html", for example, our path would be "C:/Folder/csc121/csc121.html". Just like tying a string at the beginning of a maze and unreeling it as you move deeper into it. You can always find your way back by following the path you've made.