[GRASS5] GRASS terminology revisited

[Helena]

Markus

Since there is a lot of confusion about category numbers and category
   labels, we suggest for 5.1 to change these two terms to common GIS
   vocabulary for GRASS 5.1:

         5.0              5.1
    category number  ->  index           # numeric
    category label   ->  attribute       # text

I believe that this will create an even bigger confusion than what we
have now -
all over GRASS documentation we have attribute as numeric value, FP, or
Integer or
as a text (label). We would have to change a lot of documentation and
module
descriptions to change the meaning of attribute to text (if that is what
you mean by the above)
Text is most of the time called label. I think that category number
and category label is quite clear. I have a bigger problem with terms
class, category,
attribute, value, which are all numbers. E.g. is the number representing

a class equivalent to category, but different from attribute? e.g.
category has attributes
which can be a numerical attribute (value?) or a character string
(label?).
I have mostly avoided working with classes and categories and worked
with values
so maybe I am asking stupid questions here, but it would be useful to
have this clarified
for first time users.

Anyway, I suggest to minimize any changes to terminology if at all
possible for 5.1
because it will be a nightmare to revisit the manual pages, and old
papers, tutorials and
other documents may become quite confusing.

Helena


Neteler wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> since there is partly some confusion in GRASS terminology,
> I have added the file
>
>  html/terminology.html
>
> to the CVS. Also available here:
> http://grass.itc.it/gdp/html_grass5/terminology.html
>
> It contains a small number of terms (to be extended) which
> shall be explained to the users - maybe also to us. I would
> be glad to receive comments/corrections/improvements.
>
> It also contains a suggestion for 5.1 terminology (agreed with
> Radim and David for vectors).
>
> Thanks,
>
>  Markus
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