Pacemaker uses a lot of jargon, some of it poorly defined. More consistent and natural language would be easier for users and developers, especially new ones.
## Problems
Attribute, option, parameter, property, and setting are often used interchangeably. Then we have instance attributes, meta-attributes, utilization attributes, node attributes, and XML attributes, which are mostly unrelated despite using the same term. All of these except XML attributes use the obscurely named `nvpair` element for individual values. We have historically used //set// to indicate a single XML element (`instance_attributes`, `meta_attributes`, etc.) containing a collection of `nvpair` elements (and optionally rules), but this can be confused with resource sets and //set// as a verb.
Similarly, we tend to use action, command, op, operation, request, and task somewhat interchangeably.
Acronyms (like CIB, CRM, DC, and STONITH) tend to be confusing for beginners. It's not essential to eliminate these entirely (//hello XML//), but more natural phrasing (such as //fencing// instead of //stonith//) should be used when available.
When we come up with a good system, we can update the code and documentation, and update the schema to accept either the old or new names (later using an XSL transform at a major or minor version bump to ensure the new names are always used). We can create subtasks for specific changes so it can be done in reasonable pieces.
## Definite changes
* Use //metadata// (no hyphen) instead of //meta-data// except when referring to the OCF-defined action name
* Use //primitive// instead of //native//
* Use //primary// instead of //lh//, and //dependent// instead of //rh//, when referring to constraints
* Use //assign// instead of //allocate// for associating resources with nodes
* Use //score// instead of //weight//
* Use //self-fencing// instead of //suicide// (T279)
## Likely changes still open to discussion
* Use //agent parameters// or //parameters// instead of //instance attributes// (so we have resource agent parameters or resource parameters, alert agent parameters or alert parameters, etc.; note that this is consistent with the OCF standard's usage)
* Use //options// instead of //meta-attributes// for Pacemaker-defined settings (and continue to use //options// for cluster options, so we have cluster options, resource options, alert options, etc.). Note that we allow users to set custom meta-attributes (
usable in rules or their own tooling), so we would need a name for those (maybe //labels//see T813),
or overload //tags// for these purposes)so we need a separate name for those.
* Use //action// instead of //task//, //operation//, or //op// to refer to a generic action name (start, stop, etc.), for consistency with the OCF standard
* Use //standard// instead of //class// for resource agents, except when referring to a literal setting name
## Other possibilities for discussion
* Replace //nvpair// with something more natural (maybe //setting//, //property//, //variable//) as a generic reference for an option, agent parameter, node attribute, or utilization attribute
. Alternatively, we could use separate elements for `option`, `parameter`, etc.
* Maybe replace //set// with something more distinctive (maybe //collection// or //list//) for a grouping of nvpairs
* Replace //attributes// for node and utilization attributes (maybe with //settings//, //properties//, or //variables//), so //attributes// is used only for XML attributes
* Use //operation// or maybe //task// instead of //action// or //op// to refer to a specific instance of an action executed for a particular resource and node
* Use //message// or maybe //request// for IPC and CPG messages
## CIB syntax
Here is a hypothetical example of what CIB syntax changes might look like
(see also T814):
```
<cib ...> | <cib ...>
<configuration> | <configuration>
<crm_config> | <cluster>
<cluster_property_set> | <options>
<nvpair ... /> | <setting ... />
</cluster_property_set> | </options>
</crm_config> | </cluster>
<nodes> | <nodes>
... | ...
</nodes> | </nodes>
<resources> | <resources>
<primitive ...> | <resource ...>
<meta_attributes> | <options>
<nvpair ... /> | <setting ... />
</meta_attributes> | </options>
<instance_attributes> | <agent_parameters>
<nvpair ... /> | <setting ... />
</instance_attributes> | </agent_parameters>
</primitive> | </resource>
</resources> | </resources>
</configuration> | </configuration>
... | ...
</cib> | </cib>
```