[ardour-dev] terminology (range, interval, zone, region, segment)

[Mark Knecht]

On 10/3/05, Christophe Combelles <ccomb at free.fr> wrote:
> As I'm finishing the fr translation, I have a terminology question:
>
> It seems there are two different kinds of "ranges" in ardour.
>
> 1) the ranges that appear on the range markers line:
> Many of them can exist, but each one is contiguous.
>
> 2) the range that is created with the "range" button: only one can
> exist, but it can be fragmented (multi-selection with shift button).
>
> I tend to translate both separately (eg: first as "interval", second
> as "zone" (same words in french)).
>
> Shouldn't it be the same in english?  Isn't it confusing to use the
> same word for 2 different notions?
>
> For example, when "exporting a range", nothing happens if a "range" (a
> zone) is not selected, even if you have several ranges (intervals)
> defined in the range markers line.
>
> ---
>
> another question: in french, translating "region" to "segment" seems
> more accurate, regarding ardour's way of working : a segment is always
> contiguous and is visually more explicit (one dimension) than a
> region. So i'm asking to native english speakers: isn't the word
> "segment" more explicit than "region" even in english?
>
>
> Christophe

Hi Christophe,

Don't act upon my writings here until there is more consensus.

For what it's worth, I think that the word 'segment' (in American
English) applies to any part of something that has been divided
divided. This definition is essentially mathematical in nature but I
think the key is that something needs to be really divided. For
instance, when I have a wave file applied to a track and I break it
into two separate pieces each of those pieces is a 'segment'. If I
apply two wave files to a track, each file, or it's graphics in the
track, is a 'segment'.

I think that 'typically' a region refers to a *continuous* part of a
segment. It may be the whole segment or it may be part of it.
Typically I think that a 'region' in this context is more abstract.
It's an area of the track that is marked, for some reason of interest,
but not necessarily physically divided into two parts. For instance a
region might be a highlighted portion of a wave file, or possibly more
than one wave file, in a track. When I drag my mouse across the
screen, selecting portions of the audio, I'm creating a 'region', not
a 'segment'.

This will be an interesting thread. I look forward to what others write.

Note: I used dictionary.com to puzzle this out.

Cheers,
Mark