History
A small icon of a waste container for deleting files was implemented during the development of the Apple Lisa user interface in 1982, where it was called the “Wastebasket.” The concept carried over to the Apple Macintosh, as the “Trash”, except in the pre-OS 9 “International English” localization, which retained “Wastebasket.”
Apple Inc. sued to prevent other software companies from offering graphical user interfaces similar to its own. Apple lost most of its claims but courts agreed Apple's Trash icon was original and protected by copyright. Non-Apple software may use other metaphors for file deletion, such as Recycle Bin, Smart Eraser, or Shredder.
In early versions of the Macintosh Finder, Trash contents were listed in volatile memory. Files moved to the Trash would appear there only until the Finder session ended, then they would be automatically erased. When System 7 was released, the Trash became a folder that retained its contents until the user chose to empty the trash.
Microsoft first implemented the "trash can" concept in MS-DOS 6, under the name Delete Sentry: When a file was deleted, it was moved to a hidden SENTRY folder at the root of the drive. Microsoft introduced its current trash system, the Recycle Bin, with Windows 95, as an area to store and review files and folders prior to deletion. In this version, the original location record of the file is stored, but the folder itself didn't allow subdirectories. When a folder is deleted, its containing files are moved into the bin and mixed with other deleted files. The directory structure can only be restored if the batch of files are "undeleted". The current (revised) Recycle Bin allows for subdirectory trees to exist within folders that have been moved there.
Read more about this topic: Trash (computing)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“All objects, all phases of culture are alive. They have voices. They speak of their history and interrelatedness. And they are all talking at once!”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“They are a sort of post-house,where the Fates
Change horses, making history change its tune,
Then spur away o’er empires and o’er states,
Leaving at last not much besides chronology,
Excepting the post-obits of theology.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)