From XMMS2

Proposal for definitions of nomenclature, to avoid confusion

Property

A property is a field-key combination used to specify something. E.g. the title of a song.

Media

Media are the atomic entities that are part of the media library, typically a song or stream.

Media can have properties, such as titles, durations, etc.

Mediaset

A mediaset is an abstract structure containing a number of media. I.e. it is a container for media.

A mediaset is the result/output of an operator

Operand

An operand is a mediaset used by an operator.

Attribute

An attribute is a field-key combination, modifying the behaviour of an operator.

An attribute can be called a 'property' of an operator

Operator

An operator is the concrete representation of an operation.

An operator always results in a mediaset.

An operator can have operands (if applicable).

An operator can have attributes.

DAG

Operators can have operands. Operands are mediasets. Mediasets are results of operators. Hence: Operators can use results from other operators. So: operators can be organized in a tree structure. This structure is also called a DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph). In this DAG the operators are the nodes or vertices and the mediasets that are transferred between these nodes are the edges.

Medialist

A medialist is an ordered mediaset.

Collection

Collection is identical to mediaset.

Nesciens 17:02, 7 December 2006 (CET)

• A property (resp. attribute) is a field-key combination attached to a media (resp. collection operator) to specify [...]
• An attribute can be called a 'property' of an operator

Confusing, better separate the terms cleanly.

• An operand is a mediaset used as the input of an operator.

• An operator always results in a mediaset.

Confusing, it does not intuitively imply that some operators produce medialists.

• So: operators can be organized in a tree structure.

graph structure (see examples)

• Collection is identical to mediaset.

identical is confusing I think. See Collections_Concept#Formal_definition_of_a_Collection.

Good work!

Theefer 18:15, 8 December 2006 (CET)

• Confusing, better separate the terms cleanly.

In the API 'attribute' is used for operators, but 'property' for media. In Collections_Concept 'property' is used... I'd prefer to use the vocabulary of the API, but since Collections_Concept uses 'property', I wanted to reflect the relation between these two words. Maybe I should explicitely mention the API, but this page about the concept, so I am not sure if that would be appropiate.

• Confusing, it does not intuitively imply that some operators produce medialists.

In my perception a medialist is a kind of mediaset. Rephrased: "An operator always results in a mediaset (which can be a medialist)."

• graph structure (see examples)

The word 'tree' was meant as a simplification; a tree is an acyclic graph, which can be directed (subset of DAG), or undirected.

• identical is confusing I think. See Collections_Concept#Formal_definition_of_a_Collection.

The word 'collection' is confusing (because it is so generic), so I attempted to give it a stricter meaning. Either way, I think the use of this word should minimized.

Thanks for reading and commenting on my humble perception on collections!

Nesciens 22:52, 8 December 2006 (CET)