I get a feeling that we're talking about two different things here:

	1) the file
	2) the live system running

I think that 2) isn't particularly different from any other running program, be it a Java app or even a C app. So maybe it doesn't even need a special term, it's the running application.

It's the 1) that people seem to have difficulty with. For that I find 'snapshot' quite fitting as it emphasises the important property that the system isn't really live and running, it's a snapshot of the system at a particular moment in time. I don't think it's particularly different from a memory dump either (ignoring minor technical details). The practical difference is that we can readily revive the system from the snapshot and have it continue from that point on. As many times as we want in fact. That's probably not as easy with a memory dump, although presumably not impossible.

The obvious and direct analogy are the virtualization technologies reliving their renaisance these days. From what I've seen the term snapshot is used there as well for pretty much the same thing.

"Georg Heeg"<georg at heeg.de> wrote:
> Originally image was called virtual image. When I tried to explain what a
> virtual image was I also used the words virtual word of objects.
> 
>  
> 
> Georg
> 
>  
> 
> Georg Heeg eK, Dortmund und Köthen, HR Dortmund A 12812
> 
> Tel. +49-3496-214328, Fax +49-3496-214712
> 
> Von: vwnc-bounces at cs.uiuc.edu [mailto:vwnc-bounces at cs.uiuc.edu] Im Auftrag
> von Wallen, David
> Gesendet: Freitag, 12. März 2010 21:52
> An: Eliot Miranda; Bruce Boyer
> Cc: vwnc NC; The general-purpose Squeak developers list; Pharo Development
> Betreff: Re: [vwnc] image overload
> 
>  
> 
> I kind of like the idea of suspended animation, or suspension, but there
> must be better terms that convey this.
> 
>  
> 
> - Dave W
> 
>  
> 
> 
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