Just like a real recycling bin, the Windows one lets us change our minds: the same way we can take back a plastic bottle from our recycle bin, we can restore a deleted file. The recycle bin doesn't actually recycle anything, just like a real recycle bin where items sit until the real disposal takes place which initiates the recycling process. Recycling of computer storage is in fact a more perfect form of recycling than, say, plastic or paper which are usually only "downcycling": recovering an inferior form of raw material compared to the original. Memory and disk storage are a "serially reusable" resource: when a program no longer needs it, another one can use it. Digital objects which have become "garbage" are turned into storage for new objects. "Garbage collection" was introduced in the late 1950's in the Lisp programming language.īut in fact garbage collection performs recycling (the term typically used is "storage reclamation"). The metaphor is much older than Microsoft Windows. The material from which they are made - storage bits - is regrouped and reused for other files, just like recycled plastic can be used to make something new, like a synthetic fiber sweater. The files which are deleted are in fact recycled.
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