RE: Rename "window" to "pane" (after Emacs 27)

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

> > I have nothing in principle against renaming "window" to "pane", but
> > it would be a big transient.  Before doing that, I think we should
> > poll the users to see what they think about it.
> 
> How would we go about polling the users?
> 
> This is indeed a big undertaking, seeing as there is 50.000+ instances
> of "window" in the tree to consider.  I have made a few false starts,
> but it's hard to decide the best way to start with such a big task.
> I'm currently bogged down with real world commitments and dropped the
> ball a bit here, but if there is interest I might be able to take
> another stab at it when things clear up.

IMHO (one user), not worth it.  And not really needed.

And would we then rename "frame" to "window", which
would engender further confusion, especially wrt
older versions and all of the existing Emacs
collateral outside Emacs proper?

Or if we didn't rename "frame", we would, in effect,
have "frame panes".

Really, I hope this gets discussed and decided based
on arguments pro/con _whether_ it should be done, and
not just green-lighted with discussion only of how
to go about doing it.

Every domain has its jargon.  And yes, some of it is
"just" historical - no logical need.  That is, there
may be a need for a term for something, but no
compelling need for the term to be what it has been
for historical reasons.  That applies to many Emacs
terms.

An Emacs frame is a window manager window; yes.  But
it also has Emacs properties/behavior.  Would it
matter if it were called "window" instead?  Not much,
but then we'd be saying "Emacs window" to indicate
when we were talking about its behavior/properties
as controlled by Emacs.

Anyway, I hope people think carefully about such a
possible renaming.  I've given my opinion, which
might change depending on arguments given, but so
far, no, please don't rename "window" to frame
"pane".