On Sat, 2011-03-05 at 13:53 +0900, Miles Bader wrote: > 2011/3/5 Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@xxxxxxxxx>: > > First I liked this proposal, but then I thought about 'git diff > > --preped' (doesn't really sound right). I think the term should: > > > > 1) Have a nice noun version; staging area, preparation area > > 2) Have a nice verb version; to stage, to prep > > 3) Have a nice past-participle; staged, cached > > > > Casting? Forging? I don't know, staging always seems right. > > I agree. > > I don't why so many people seem to be trying so hard to come with > alternatives to "staged" and "staging area", when the latter are > actually quite good; so far all the suggestions have been much more > awkward and less intuitive. > > It's true that "staging area" and "stage" as a verb are most intuitive > for native english speakers, but so far none of the alternatives > really seem any better for non-native speakers. _All_ of these terms > are "learned" to some degree, and in that sense are arbitrary, but the > smoothness and intuitiveness of "staging area"/"stage" for english > speakers is a real plus I think. It has already been pointed out that this isn't always quite as intuitive as it sounds to many. I think we'd be flogging a dead horse to continue discussing that. > As for translations, is it even an issue? If term "XXX" is the > optimum term in some other language, then that should be the > translation for that langage, _regardless_ of what the english term > used is. > > -miles Having translated stuff before, and having helped clean-up / finish translations from other languages to English, I can say that it most certainly DOES MATTER what the idiom used in the source language is. Unless I the translator know more about how something works than the core developers that wrote it I am highly dependent on the explanations they have used. That is why it is important to have a complete and portable metaphor. In fact, that's exactly what I was thinking about when I suggested "commit preparation area" earlier in this thread--the translation to Spanish is a tad verbose but it is entirely clear without further jiggering or expectation of specific cultural knowledge. I'm not sure why that "fails" the equally arbitrary participle-mapping test... It sure has one, but as a native English speaker and a brutal editor I am perfectly comfortable with the notion that not all verbs have natural noun forms and vice-versa. -- -Drew Northup ________________________________________________ "As opposed to vegetable or mineral error?" -John Pescatore, SANS NewsBites Vol. 12 Num. 59 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html