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Origin of "Software"
- baddox 19y agoInteresting article, although it seems to me that the term itself is rather self-explanatory, not a term that needed to be coined. "Ware" is just an item, and "hardware" had surely been around long before computers. So once computers came around, I assume people instinctively referred to tangible computer equipment as "hardware." Calling the intangible elements "software" probably soon followed. I wonder when terms like "firmware" or "midware" originated?
- gruseom 19y agoCool article! The 1958 usage doesn't prove that Tukey invented the word "software", just that it wasn't invented later. I'm inclined to believe it, though, because of the corroborating fact that he also invented the word "bit". That's pretty compelling. And impressive.