Editing Bit bucket (section)

==History==
Originally, the bit bucket was the container on [[teletype]] machines or [[IBM]] [[key punch]] machines into which [[chad (paper)|chad]] from the [[paper tape]] punch or [[punched card|card]] punch was deposited;<ref name="Cutler_1964"/> the formal name is "chad box" or (at IBM) "[[Swarf|chip]] box". The term was then generalized into any place where useless bits go, a useful computing concept known as the [[null device]]. The term bit bucket is also used in discussions of [[bit shift operation]]s.<ref name="OBrien_2010"/>

The bit bucket is related to the [[FINO|first in never out]] buffer and [[Write-only memory (joke)|write-only memory]], in a joke datasheet issued by [[Signetics]] in 1972.<ref name="Signetics_1972"/>

In a 1988 April Fool's article in ''[[Compute!]]'' magazine, [[Atari BASIC]] author Bill Wilkinson presented a [[PEEK and POKE|POKE]] that implemented what he called a "WORN" (Write Once, Read Never) device, "a close relative of the [[Write once read many|WORM]]".<ref name="Wilkinson_1988"/>

In [[programming language]]s the term is used to denote a [[bitstream]] which does not consume any computer resources, such as [[CPU]] or [[computer memory|memory]], by discarding any data "written" to it. In [[.NET Framework]]-based languages, it is the ''System.IO.Stream.Null''.<ref name="Java2s"/>