Ok, this one is VERY deep so stay with me here. Any of you who used to play Oregon Trail on the Apple II in elementary school knows that the Macintosh used to have the Trash Can on the desktop, which was subsequently ripped off by Windows 95 and renamed the Recycle Bin. My question is whether either name is truly accurate.
A trash can would imply that what goes in is taken away and never comes back, in any form. A recycle bin on the other hand would imply that what goes in is taken away, changed a bit, and reformed into the same thing. So what are we really doing when we delete that word document? If you think you are deleting the document then you should really send it to the Trash Can because you will never see that document again. But, if you are simply clearing the bytes that make up that document so you can use them again for another document then you should send it to the Recycle Bin.
It all depends on your point of view. Are you deleting the document or recycling the bytes that make up the document? Maybe it should be renamed the disposal facility. I just don't know, maybe Al Gore does...
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