[e-lang] "Scope" or "Environment"? Your observations wanted

[Kevin Reid]

I've been arguing (to MarkM) that the thing which E-on-Java calls  
Scope should be called Environment, or Env.

What is now called Scope is a collection of nouns (variable names)  
associated with slots providing the values for those nouns.

I have said that a "scope" actually refers to the textual region in  
which a variable is visible; i.e. it is static, and a property of the  
program, whereas "environment" refers to the runtime state, what the  
variables in some scope are bound to in the execution under  
consideration.

Am I wrong?

Is there common usage that disagrees with this, and is not just casual  
sloppiness?

Are there other reasons against (or for) this renaming?

(MarkM dislikes the name "environment" because it is so long; so I  
propose to use the shorter word "env" at least in verb names.)

-- 
Kevin Reid                            <http://homepage.mac.com/kpreid/>