Re: renaming "vertical spacing inside systems" props

[Trevor Daniels]

Keith E OHara wrote Sunday, November 07, 2010 2:54 AM


> On Sat, 06 Nov 2010 18:20:08 -0700, 
> <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> [...]
> > And lastly, I still think reference/opposite is better than
> > related/unrelated:
> > nonstaff-referencestaff
> > nonstaff-oppositestaff
> > But I won't protest.  Any last thoughts/votes, or should I
> > go ahead with the proposals listed above

> I had imagined you would simultaneously change
>       staff-affinity  (UP / DOWN / CENTER)
> to    reference-direction (UP / DOWN / CENTER)
> so we can remember that this direction tells us which staff is 
> which between referencestaff and oppositestaff.
>
> We might convince Mr Daniels that this is good enough reason to 
> support your (unabbreviated) preference, or he might come up with 
> an even better suggestion for the variable that chooses which 
> direction is the 'related' direction.

My rationale is to choose words that stand-alone and carry a clear
indication of both the underlying concept and the relationship to 
other
properties.

I like "staff-affinity" because it means an attraction to or 
relationship with a
staff.  Sounds just right.  "reference-direction" is OK too, but 
suffers from
not indicating "staff" as the relevant object.

"referencestaff" in itself satisfies my criteria, and I'd be happy 
with that,
but I don't like "oppositestaff".  It has no meaning in itself, as 
there is no
indication in its name what it is opposite to.  You have to remember 
it is
it is one of a related pair and its partner is called 
"referencestaff".
OTOH "relatedstaff"/"unrelatedstaff" both stand alone with clear 
meanings,
and with a clear association with "staff-affinity", as one of the 
meanings
of "affinity" is "having a relationship".

All that said, I'm not going to protest against any of the recent 
proposals;
they're all an improvement over existing wording.  All I have is a 
preference,
nothing stronger.  Others have other preferences, and, having stated 
my
case, I'm happy to go along with the majority view.

Trevor