Editing Computer file (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:PunchCardDecks.agr.jpg|right|thumb|A [[punched card]] file]]
[[File:BRL61-IBM 305 RAMAC.jpeg|right|thumb|The twin [[Disk storage|disk files]] of an [[IBM 305]] system]]

The word "file" derives from the Latin ''filum'' ("a thread, string").<ref>{{Cite web |title=Online Etymology Dictionary |url=https://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=file |access-date=2015-08-17 |archive-date=2015-09-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924134509/https://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=file |url-status=live }}</ref>

"File" was used in the context of computer storage as early as January 1940. In ''Punched Card Methods in Scientific Computation'',<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Eckert |first1=W. J. |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002523225 |title=Punched card methods in scientific computation |last2=Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau |first2=New York. |date=1940 |publisher=The Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau, Columbia University |location=New York |access-date=2018-04-17 |archive-date=2020-06-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200612015646/https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002523225 |url-status=live }}</ref> W. J. Eckert stated, "The first extensive use of the early Hollerith Tabulator in astronomy was made by [[Leslie Comrie|Comrie]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Comrie |first=L. J. |date=1928-04-13 |title=On the Construction of Tables by Interpolation (Plate 6) |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |language=en |volume=88 |issue=6 |pages=506–523 |bibcode=1928MNRAS..88..506C |doi=10.1093/mnras/88.6.506 |issn=0035-8711 |doi-access=free}}</ref> He used it for building a table from successive differences, and for adding large numbers of harmonic terms". "Tables of [[Function (mathematics)|functions]] are constructed from their differences with great efficiency, either as printed tables or as a ''[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3621946?urlappend=%3Bseq=16 file of punched cards]''."

In February 1950, in a [[Radio Corporation of America]] (RCA) advertisement in ''[[Popular Science]]'' magazine<ref>{{Citation |title=Popular Science |date=February 1950 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9SwDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA96 |page=96 |publisher=Bonnier Corporation |access-date=2014-03-07 |mode=cs1 |archive-date=2022-01-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220109114611/https://books.google.com/books?id=9SwDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA96 |url-status=live }}</ref> describing a new "memory" vacuum tube it had developed, RCA stated: "the results of countless computations can be kept 'on file' and taken out again.  Such a 'file' now exists in a 'memory' tube developed at RCA Laboratories. Electronically it retains figures fed into calculating machines, holds them in storage while it memorizes new ones – speeds intelligent solutions through mazes of mathematics."

In 1952, "file" denoted, among other things, information stored on [[punched card]]s.<ref>Robert S. Casey, et al. ''Punched Cards: Their Applications to Science and Industry''. 1952.</ref>

In early use, the underlying hardware, rather than the contents stored on it, was denominated a "file". For example, the [[IBM 350]] disk drives were denominated "disk files".<ref>Martin H. Weik. Ballistic Research Laboratories Report #1115. March 1961. [https://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL61-ibm03.html#IBM-305-RAMAC pp. 314–331] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021113333/https://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL61-ibm03.html#IBM-305-RAMAC |date=2016-10-21 }}.</ref> The introduction, {{circa|1961}}, by the [[Burroughs MCP]] and the MIT [[Compatible Time-Sharing System]] of the concept of a "[[file system]]" that managed several virtual "files" on one storage device is the origin of the contemporary denotation of the word. Although the contemporary "[[register file]]" demonstrates the early concept of files, its use has greatly decreased.