From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jeff King Subject: Re: Consistent terminology: cached/staged/index Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2011 03:43:17 -0500 Message-ID: <20110227084317.GB3356@sigill.intra.peff.net> References: <20110213193738.GA26868@elie> <7v8vxjwnhj.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> <20110214231920.GA24814@elie> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Cc: Jonathan Nieder , Piotr Krukowiecki , Junio C Hamano , git@vger.kernel.org To: Felipe Contreras X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Sun Feb 27 09:43:26 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PtcDt-0001kr-PC for gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org; Sun, 27 Feb 2011 09:43:26 +0100 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751816Ab1B0InU convert rfc822-to-quoted-printable (ORCPT ); Sun, 27 Feb 2011 03:43:20 -0500 Received: from xen6.gtisc.gatech.edu ([143.215.130.70]:35586 "EHLO peff.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751528Ab1B0InU (ORCPT ); Sun, 27 Feb 2011 03:43:20 -0500 Received: (qmail 14447 invoked by uid 111); 27 Feb 2011 08:43:19 -0000 Received: from 99-108-226-0.lightspeed.iplsin.sbcglobal.net (HELO sigill.intra.peff.net) (99.108.226.0) (smtp-auth username relayok, mechanism cram-md5) by peff.net (qpsmtpd/0.40) with ESMTPA; Sun, 27 Feb 2011 08:43:19 +0000 Received: by sigill.intra.peff.net (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Sun, 27 Feb 2011 03:43:17 -0500 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 11:09:14PM +0200, Felipe Contreras wrote: > On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 1:19 AM, Jonathan Nieder = wrote: > > When people talk about the staging area I tend to get confused. =C2= =A0I > > think there's an idea that because it sounds more concrete, there i= s > > less to explain --- or maybe I am just wired the wrong way. >=20 > I don't like the phrase "staging area". A "stage" already has an area= =2E > You put things on the stage. Sometimes there are multiple stages. As a native English speaker, this makes no sense to me. A stage as a noun is either: 1. a raised platform where you give performances 2. a phase that some process goes through (e.g., "the early stages of Alzheimer's disease") Whereas the term "staging area" is a stopping point on a journey for collecting and organizing items. I couldn't find a definite etymology online, but it seems to be military in origin (e.g., you would send all your tanks to a staging area, then once assembled and organized, begin your attack). You can't just call it "staging", which is not a noun, an= d the term "stage" is not a synonym. "Staging area" has a very particular meaning. So the term "staging area" makes perfect sense to me; it is where we collect changes to make a commit. I am willing to accept that does not to others (native English speakers or no), and that we may need to come up with a better term. But I think just calling it "the stage" is even worse; it loses the concept that it is a place for collecting and organizing. -Peff