Hello all, this is (I think) my maiden post; etymology has dragged me from the woodwork. On Wed, 2007-11-14 at 16:06 +0000, J-P Stacey wrote:
Brad Bowman wrote:
taxonomy.module--> classification.module vocabulary --> category term --> term
+1 for this Alex Cochrane
Agreed. I think this is more clear to the average person, without sacrificing anything for the technical types.
I'm happy to see "taxonomy" and "vocabulary" bite the dust, but the average person would happily use "term" and "category" interchangeably to describe terms, though, so I think there's still potential for confusion there (especially considering what catch libcom has said about WordPress).
I agree that "category" is a very confusing replacement for "vocabulary" and that most people would think of it as a "term". I preferred "category group", though this still does not quite feel optimal.
Categorising something means assigning it terms, after all, not somehow assigning it weird nebulous term-containing objects. Although -1 for "container", which sounds too much like something I'd put round my lunch rather than my terms.
I don't like container either.
I've asked my librarian chums, but does anyone here know what archivists and the like call all these things? That might point us in an unambiguous direction.
A general term for these things seems to be "Classification scheme": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_scheme
From my wandering around wikipedia, and the OED, class and category have very similar meanings, viz:
Category: a class, or division [orig from Greek kategoria, statement, accusation] Categorization: the act or an act of placing something in a category, classification. Categorize: to place in a category. Class: A group of people or things having some attribute in common. [from Latin classis, an assembly or division of the Roman people] Classification: 1. The action of classifying. 2. the result of classifying. Classify: arrange in classes, assign to a class. I would suggest that whatever is decided, there should be a consistent root work (probably category, perhaps class) in all three terms, e.g.: taxonomy.module--> categorization.module vocabulary --> categorization OR categorization scheme OR category group OR category scheme term --> category OR: taxonomy.module--> classification.module vocabulary --> classification OR classification scheme term --> class To keep things as consistent with the current setup as possible, I'd suggest category and categorization over class and classification. One thought: how does this translate into other languages? All the best, David. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorization
J-P