Do you have any alternative to files in mind? There are image-based systems like Smalltalk and some members of the Lisp family, but even in those cases, sources usually end up being stored long-term in files, as a matter of convenience.
> …but even in those cases, sources usually end up being stored long-term in files, as a matter of convenience.
Is that "the file as a basic organizing unit of code"?
Even when code is organized in applications and classes and versions… and persistence comes from a database, the database will be implemented using a computer file system.
