Last modified: 2009-01-02 19:26:32 UTC
Hello. For years, the diction used on the history page software has caught my eye. Where it says "(last) = difference with preceding version" the word "last" is incorrect. It should read, "(prev) = difference with previous version" (and then all the '(last)' in the list of versions should be changed to '(prev)'". "Last" is synonymous with "Final"; do you want to imply that no further changes are possible?! Thanks, Ken
One definition of "last" is synonymous with "final". Another is synonymous with "previous". This is reflected in common sentences like "So what did you do last week?"
Yes, the prior comment is correct, but when used in the second sense (synonymous with "previous"), "last" is always relative to the time of writing or speaking. I.e., I can as of the moment of this writing refer to the week of Monday, July 10, 2006, as "last" week, but in several weeks hence, as this enhancement is reviewed and debated, "last" week will no longer refer to said week, but rather to another week entirely. When in the future you refer back to what I today mean by "last week" (relative to my current moment of writing this), you will not say "last week" but rather "the previous week". (This is what I read from Oxford English Dictionary.) Referring to every member of a sequence of things as "last", as does the wiki history page, sets up an ambiguity. This can create actual confusion, as it did for me when I years ago first viewed the history page. When I was new to Wikipedia, I thought that the comparison of "last" would be with the "final" version. The term "cur" refers to the current version in a way that is not relative to each version in the list, but rather relative to the moment of the viewer/user. So, I initially interpreted "last" the same way. Of course, when I eventually read the key ("(last) = difference with preceding version"), I understood. But wouldn't we rather have the terminology be as self-documenting as possible? The term "previous" ("prev") would remove this perspective dependence and possible source of confusion. "Previous" anchors the perspective to the version in question; there is nothing absolute in it. And, when writing software, don't you use "first", "prev", "cur", "next", "last" as names of pointers to items in a list? I offer this enhancement suggestion because this is such great and useful software.
Hmm, okay. A reasonable point.
Done in r45311
