Re: Proposal to improve the nomenclature of scrolling directions

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@IRO.UMontreal.CA>]

> (a) They are ambiguous: here we are talking about _vertical_
> scrolling, and "forward"/"backward" could refer to horizontal
> scrolling too.

We could fix that by explicitly mentioning it's vertical scrolling.

> (b) They take the opposite criterion: while "up"/"down" refer to the
> movement of the text (relative to the window), "forward"/"backward"
> refer to the movement of the window (relative to the text).  So we end
> up with a confusing mix of criteria.

That's also a problem in your proposal.

> 1.  Rename the command `scroll-up' to `scroll-window-down' (an

While you can argue it's less ambiguous, you have to think about it
to remove the various ambiguities (e.g. you have think about it before
determining that it probably doesn't mean "scroll-window- as opposed to
scroll-frame-").
The up/down terminology is just to be avoided, I think.  Much clearer is
terminology that refers to the beginning/end of the text.


        Stefan