"to persist data"

[Andrew Warren]

Nancy Allison wrote:

> I've just run across the expression "to persist data" -- I find it on
> the web as well as in the doc I've been asked to work on. 
> 
> Here's a web example:
> 
> "Once we have validated, or failed to validate our data, we need to
> persist it. (Or at the very least we need to make the decisions not to
> persist it.) We have an number of ways to persist our data depending
on
> the scope of the persistance. For a single webform, we may be
> persisting the information back into the form input fields. Or we may
> persist it to a session if we want to data to remain for the entirety
> of the user's visit. We may even persist it to a database for long
term
> storage."       
> 
> While I understand that our geekier siblings are happy with this term,
> I'd like to stick with English as much as possible. (Is joke! Mostly.)

> What does "to persist data" mean? To move it? To retain it unchanged?
> Is there a Regular English verb that expresses the same meaning?

Yeah, "persist" as a transitive verb is horrible.

It means "store"; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_storage
for more details.

-Andrew

=== Andrew Warren  - awarren at synaptics.com
=== Synaptics, Inc - Santa Clara, CA