Posted by Charles Russell on 11/17/95 11:46

Doug Anderson wrote:

> Gary <gary_w1@hotmail.com> writes:
>
>> I've had mp3 players for a long time. Every one I've owned allowed
>> you to take the files of mp3s, heirarchically arranged, into the
>> player. So I developed this structure which has worked for me for a
>> long time:
>>
>> mp3s
>> ---Books
>> ------Author1 - Book Title 1
>> ------Author2 - Book Title 2
>> ---Classical
>> ------Composer1 - Album Name 1
>> ------Composer2 - Album Name 2

> Unfortunately for you, your system was based on organizing your files
> by what directories they were in (and maybe by their name) and iTunes
> system is based on organizing files by the information attached to
> them (which ideally includes things like Artist, Album, Composer,
> Genre, etcetera.
>
The OP used a hierarchical database, while Apple uses a relational
database. I think the trend is with Apple. In the future, people will
just tag all files of whatever sort, throw them all together on their
hard drive, and find them with a search program. No thought or planning
required, and maybe 95% success at retrieval (unless the tag labels are
as well thought out as a good hierarchical system). The downside is
uncertain retrieval and more complicated software (proprietary,
restrictive, expensive?). So while tagging my files, I'm keeping them
in the old directory structure. Itunes on the PC permits this.

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