Even more interesting is the phrase, "write to an API", meaning that the code conforms to or uses a specified application programming interface.

Grrr... I had a long comment here, but the window went blank just before I hit post.

How common is "write to" as opposed to "save to/on"? In the handful of computer languages I know, "write" is used in general to mean "create output" (regardless of whether that output is destined to be saved, consumed, displayed on a CRT, etc.). In the 40s and 50s, most people talking about computers would be professional computer experts (programmers or at least operators), so one would expect their language to be influenced by programming syntax. But end users today see "File|Save" in their menus, so "save" is probably a lot more commonplace in the general public.

I suppose another reason to think of digital media as volumetric is because a disk or tape actually does have an outer surface that could be written upon with a marker. Office workers might need to differentiate between the different types of writing.

FYI I Googled a bit for such things as "write to" and "write on". The URLs would be unweildy here... if you're interested see http://jerz.setonhill.edu/weblog/permalink.jsp?id=1700

Of course, this doesn't help examine the language of the 40s and 50s. I feel like the guy in the joke who lost his keys in the alley, but he's looking along the boulevard because the light's so much brighter there.

Thanks Dennis and Mark, this is useful feedback. Dennis, the only one of your Googled results that surprises me is this one:

* "write on" paper: 273,000
* "write to" paper: 1,300,000

Wonder what accounts for that? (I'd have expected the results there to be flipped.)

My guess is that the discrepancy between "write to" and "write on" nas nothing to do with the question at hand: Google reports 5,820,000 links for "write to", and only 728,000 for "write on." So, it makes sense that when you throw "paper" into the mix, "write to" would still be more common (though as much more common as when "paper" isn't an added search term). Makes sense - one "writes on" a sheet of paper, but one also uses a sheet of paper to "write to" someone else: a friend, a congressperson, etc. They're kind of apples and oranges, in a sense...