RE: VC filesets

["Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> On this subject, it's unfortunate that VC now uses the term "fileset"
> extensively, with a totally different meaning to the pre-existing
> "filesets.el" package; but I don't have a solution.

I know nothing about VC filesets, but I agree about the problem - and I too
don't have a solution. ;-)

I think the problem comes from the adoption of "fileset" by filesets.el - that
term is too general as a name for the specific feature that the library
implements.

There was nothing wrong with that characterization by filesets.el at the time.
It's just that the term is intrinsically so general that it naturally leads to
verbal gymnastics to avoid confusion with the limited meaning it has taken on in
Emacs.

As another illustration, Icicles supports Emacs filesets but it also supports
other kinds of saved sets of file names. The Icicles doc refers to the latter in
just that roundabout way, because "fileset" has been given a narrow meaning by
Emacs.

I'm not proposing anything here - just adding another anecdote about the
unfortunate terminology situation.

Similar things could be said about other features - bookmarks, for instance.
Googling or searching the Emacs wiki will show that there are other packages
that provide bookmarking features, but calling those features "bookmarks" leads
to confusion in cases where they are incompatible with the bookmarks of
bookmarks.el.

I doubt that there is a good general solution to problems such as this.
Proactively we could try to use more specific terms for new features - or to
invent new terms, instead of eagerly adopting very general existing terms.

There probably is a natural tendency, unfortunately, for a feature inventor to
characterize the feature in the most general terms. Bookmarking (or tabs or ...)
in Emacs means just this feature...

Another thing that might help a little bit (but not much) would be to choose a
different name for the library itself, if a general name is chosen for the
feature.

It's pretty clear, for example, if you speak of "Bm bookmarks", or "Info
breadcrumbs", or "Tabbar tabs". It's less clear if you have to speak of
"Bookmarks bookmarks", or "Breadcrumbs breadcrumbs", or "Tabs tabs" (for a
fictitious library tabs.el).