[development] Early Drupal 6 review from Chris Messina

[David Sterratt]

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