[wp-hackers] Idea: Rename the Excerpt to something accurate

[Lynne Pope]

The excerpt has been with us for a very long time and I doubt a name change
will do anything except cause confusion.

While "excerpt" can certainly mean “a passage (as from a book or musical
composition) selected,
performed, or copied” it also means, "abridge by choosing representative
sections" and is, IMO, appropriate for "optional hand-crafted summaries of
your content".

The automatic excerpt is very clearly an extract taken from the whole
content, so the term is the most appropriate. A manual excerpt may be a
synopsis, abstract, description, or introduction to the content but that is
the beauty of WordPress - it allows for great flexibility.

I don't think we should get too hung up on dictionary definitions though.
Those that understand the_excerpt are used to the name, those that don't
will either learn or not bother too much with it. The work involved in
changing the name and function, rewriting the codex, and making sure
everyone is aware of it being changed kinda outweighs any advantage that
could, perhaps, be gained by choosing a different term. And then we would
eventually get back to someone suggesting the new name is inappropriate, or
doesn't translate well, or is not well-known enough ;)

Lynne