Recent documentation patches, and an RFC on terminology

I just sent two documentation patches to the list in quick succession. In case they arrive out of order: the first, smaller one - modifying only the git-status documentation - should be applied before the second one (distinguishing between "staging area" and "index" throughout the documentation).

We may have an opportunity to improve on the term "staging area". As I reflect on it, I think replacing that with the term "depot" might not be a bad idea. In English this word has the general sense of "warehouse", and the more specialized connotation of a place where freight is temporarily held for transshipment, or where military supplies and recruits are mustered before field deployment. That is, a depot is a particular kind of staging area.

Since these terms are so similar, why change?

One reason is that --depot would be a shorter and more graceful choice than --staging-area as a long-form option. It has the same letter count as "index", so changing command and option names to use it wouldn't add more typing.

Another reason is that "depot" is slightly more distant from normal English vocabulary than "staging area" is. When you need a word to co-opt as a technical term of art, thast's an advantage; it reduces the chances of collisions between term-of-art and normal usages.

If this proposal is accepted, I can very easly generate a patch to implement it. Teasing apart "index" from "staging area" was actual work, but now that the distinction has been made replacing the latter would be trivial.