Re: "Delete" = "Hide"
On the Psion 3 family, updating a file on the flash memory simply writes a new copy of it to be used in place of the older copy. Eventually the thing fills up and needs to be formatted to get the space back. But, yes, I can see people not realising that there may be multiple copies of a file lurking there.
Or, on many filing systems of the era, deleting a file simply destroys the links held in the directory and marks the space as free. The file itself is retained until overwritten.
On an early RISC OS, I was able to recover a file accidentally deleted by doing a *Create to make a file that was as big as the free space. The entire lot was dropped into Edit (the word processor, but could handle control codes) and hacked about with until the file was found and pieced together (not being in contiguous sectors made it harder).
Thankfully RISC OS on a floppy drive didn't bother to blank the file first, it simply allocated it in the directory and left the user/programmer to sort out what happens next. Saved my ass a few times. ;)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
