The word you're looking for is 'stasis.' That's actually the best
suggestion I've heard thus far.

For the record, though, I think that 'image' and 'snapshot' have
entered the lingua-franca, and changing it now, however well thought
or well meant, will only increase confusion for new comers, and that's
what I think the community needs right now.

On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 12:51 PM, Wallen, David <dwallen at cincom.com> wrote:
> I kind of like the idea of suspended animation, or suspension, but there
> must be better terms that convey this.
>
>
>
> - Dave W
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: vwnc-bounces at cs.uiuc.edu [mailto:vwnc-bounces at cs.uiuc.edu] On Behalf
> Of Eliot Miranda
> Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 11:05 AM
> To: Bruce Boyer
> Cc: vwnc NC; Pharo Development; The general-purpose Squeak developers list
>
> Subject: Re: [vwnc] image overload
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 10:51 AM, Bruce Boyer <bruce.boyer at alumni.uci.edu>
> wrote:
>
> This is rather a sensitive area with me at the moment, as I'm working on
> indexing docs.  I've had to resort to using "image" and "graphical image" to
> try to distinguish these two, but "image" remains unclear to anyone who
> doesn't already know.
>
>
>
> I could guess that the term "snapshot" came first, as a methaphorical
> attempt to describe what saving that thing is, and "image" is what snapshots
> give (or pictures or something even worse for that thing).  But, it's only a
> guess.
>
>
>
> Right.  That's why I don't like either snapshot or image.  What are these
> snapshots or images of?  They are intentionally abstract terms and are
> unhelpful.  Yes, snapshot is much better, but still hopelessly abstract.
>
>
>
>
>
> If a really good term were proferred, the documentation cost will be
> amortized over a long period of time, so not a worry.  Getting it accepted
> by smalltalkers will be the harder problem.
>
>
>
> I'm not sure, though, that "system file" is right.  The file part is just an
> artifact of saving the state of the system, providing a way to preserving it
> for a restart.
>
>
>
> But I see a snapshot file are more than just a memory dump.  It /is/ the
> entire Smalltalk system, class library, potentially compiler, debugger,
> tools.  It is in a format that requires the virtual machine to run it, but
> it is in fact the Smalltalk system in quiescent form.  It is not a memory
> dump.  It is only a dump of the Smalltalk object heap, not the entire memory
> space.
>
>
>
> It is more than just a way of saving the state.  It is also a way of moving
> that state and resuming it on a different system.  Once you have the virtual
> machine key you can unlock the image, uh, system, but everything you need to
> program the system (beyond execution display and input devices) is there.
>
>
>
> Is there a recognizable term for the state of memory at a moment?  Cognitive
> scientists might have something, though I'm sure it would be hugely debated
> whether there is any such thing.
>
>
>
> I forget...
>
>
>
>
>
> Waste of time?  Perhaps.  But, beats indexing :)
>
>
>
> Bruce
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: Eliot Miranda
>
> To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list ; Pharo Development ; vwnc NC
>
> Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 9:59 AM
>
> Subject: [vwnc] image overload
>
>
>
> Hi All,
>
>
>
>     I'm sure Im opening an old topic but anyway, as I was riding the train
> to work today I saw a shop called "Audio Images" and it struck me how
> overloaded the term image is, and how poor a term for the contents of the
> image file Smalltalk image is.  What's in the image is a snapshot of...
> almost the entire system (minus platform-specific virtual machine and
> possibly minus sources).  So Smalltalk system file would be a far better
> term and stsys a more unique file extension (and according to Wikipedia STS
> is unused too).  I can imagine that changing form image would be hugely
> expensive in documentation terms (docs, websites, workspaces, etc, etc).
>  But I can at least dream of a better term.
>
>
>
> P.S.  I know, wasting one's time worrying about names.  Almost as bad as
> worrying about colours
>
>
>
> "And the wheel," said the Captain, "What about this wheel thingy? It sounds
> a terribly interesting project."
> "Ah," said the marketing girl, "Well, we're having a little difficulty
> there."
> "Difficulty?" exclaimed Ford. "Difficulty? What do you mean, difficulty?
> It's the single simplest machine in the entire Universe!"
> The marketing girl soured him with a look.
> "Alright, Mr. Wiseguy," she said, "if you're so clever, you tell us what
> colour it should be."
>
> ________________________________
>
> _______________________________________________
> vwnc mailing list
> vwnc at cs.uiuc.edu
> http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwnc
>
>
>
>
>



-- 
Casey Ransberger