_Populate_ > computer jargon, "make non-empty"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 9/30/2010 04:38 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>I myself have been populating computer fields for about three decades.

Spread the seed.  I've been populating data bases for three or four decades.

Uncleanliness, perhaps, according to the Puritans.

1.c. Computing.
a) To fill the sockets on (a circuit board) with components, esp.
those which provide extra memory capacity. Also (of components): to
occupy the sockets on (a circuit board).
1977--

(b) To import data into (a database); to provide (a database) with content.
1982--

I suspect "populate" 1.c(b) can be pushed back perhaps 10 years in
relational databases (SQL & RDMS) and/or network databases (CODASYL)
... and Googling books suggests 1974 or 1975.  E.g., Data base
systems: a practical reference, by Ian R. Palmer, by no means the
earliest writer on database systems or relational databases -- "A
test data generator to populate a test database as described in the
schema".  And Chris Date was writing around then too.  Earlier than
1974-5 might require searching articles, manuals on database system
software, or standards like CODASYL, for which one report (data base
task group) was issued in 1971 (GB, no preview).

Joel



Joel

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