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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Waste of time? Perhaps. But, beats
indexing :)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Bruce</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=eliot.miranda@gmail.com href="mailto:eliot.miranda@gmail.com">Eliot
Miranda</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org
href="mailto:squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org">The general-purpose Squeak
developers list</A> ; <A title=pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr
href="mailto:pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr">Pharo Development</A> ; <A
title=vwnc@cs.uiuc.edu href="mailto:vwnc@cs.uiuc.edu">vwnc NC</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, March 12, 2010 9:59
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [vwnc] image overload</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Hi All,
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV> 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.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>P.S. I know, wasting one's time worrying about names. Almost
as bad as worrying about colours</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; FONT-FAMILY: sans-serif">"And the
wheel," said the Captain, "What about this wheel thingy? It sounds a terribly
interesting project."<BR>"Ah," said the marketing girl, "Well, we're having a
little difficulty there."<BR>"Difficulty?" exclaimed Ford. "Difficulty? What
do you mean, difficulty? It's the single simplest machine in the entire
Universe!"<BR>The marketing girl soured him with a look.<BR>"Alright, Mr.
Wiseguy," she said, "if you're so clever, you tell us what colour it should
be."</SPAN></DIV>
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