Gitlab recently exchanged the "WIP" prefix for merge requests (Work in Progress = started to do something but didn't complete it yet) for "Draft", which has connotations of throwing the draft/sketch away to build the final product.
Which is definitively not what is meant there. But I think it shows that Gitlab is not a company I'd go to if I wanted linguistic precision.
I am not a native English speaker (and I don't work at Gitlab) but I am curious and interested in using proper terms, as I think as developer that naming is a very important skill.
So, I find strange this meaning that you give for a "draft" = that it is something that has connotation of throwing away when building the final product.
I think you are confusing a "draft" with a "sketch" and they are not the same.
I googled the term "draft" and here is what I found:
> "a version of something (such as a document) that you make before you make the final version" [1]
> "A preliminary version of a piece of writing." [2]
While "sketch" means:
> "a rough drawing representing the chief features of an object or scene and often made as a preliminary study" [3]
> "A rough or unfinished version of any creative work." [3]
> "A rough or unfinished drawing or painting, often made to assist in making a more finished picture." [4]
In the case of sketch I see some keywords like "preliminary study" or "assist" or "unfinished version" that indicates that the sketch will not be the final product.
So while it is true that a Draft could be thrown away if someone has new/better/difference ideas while working on it, it does not seem to imply that a Draft should be thrown when building the final product.
As far as I understand it is more that a draft will evolve into a final product or might be abandoned.
Unfortunately, here, I think the problem is that English is not very clear.
As a native English speaker, the first time I encountered the word 'draft' was at primary school. We used it to describe a piece of writing where presentation was not the focus, instead, content and accuracy in terms of spelling, grammar, and punctuation would be the focus. Once the drafts were complete, we would 'copy these up' in our neatest handwriting.
However, if I prepare a 'draft' of some document or other for my boss, I expect it to be essentially an unapproved version of a final document, perhaps needing some minor modifications before release, but also perhaps not.
Although personally, I would use 'sketch' to mean something disposable which illustrates a more perfect version, my grandmother is an artist, and she refers to the initial drawings she makes on the canvas as 'sketches', which she then paints over in more detail.
Essentially, I don't think there's a big difference between draft and sketch - both could (in my opinion) represent either a version which will be discarded or which will be developed further.
Overall, I think here, the 'Work In Progress' label is the clearest and least likely to be interpreted differently by different users.
It's also interesting the in English we also have Drafters or draughtsman/draughtswoman, who's job is drafting, which is the process of creating technical drawings for manufacture.[1]
In a highly technical environment this is the kind of work I associate with drafting, but not necessarily with the word draft.
The wikipedia page for "Draft" has a veritable smorgasbord of different things that are considered "Drafts"[2], which kind of illustrates that getting pedantic about the definition of the word is losing proposition.
But a native english speakers as well, I agree with you, that the everyday colloquial definition of the word "draft" is an incomplete piece of work that needs further refinement before it can be considered complete or final.
> I am not a native English speaker (and I don't work at Gitlab) but I am curious and interested in using proper terms, as I think as developer that naming is a very important skill.
That is it for me too and why I think this change is so annoying.
WIP means something is being worked on. [0]
Draft can mean the same, but it also has a bunch of other possible meanings. Note that if you search in both of your sources, you'll find "sketch" as an explaination. It can mean the same, but it can also mean a bunch of other things. It's a strictly worse name.
Most likely the rename is in order to get more people to understand what it is without having to look up abbreviations. "Draft" is clear to most people who know English, while "WIP" puts a lot more burden on the reader in terms of what they already need to know in order to understand.
A draft in the visual arts (drawing, painting), is typically abandoned, like a sketch. Perhaps it uses a different medium to the final version, and in any case can't easily be adapted.
A draft in writing is typically incrementally improved, or at least we think of it that way now that we write on computers. We don't need to start again even for substantial changes like adding a new paragraph.
In internet, in most places I've seen "draft" as being something that is not yet published. For example in a lot of blogging software like WordPress, you can save your post and it will be "Draft", but only will be visible to others when you publish, so it's not thrown away in most contexts that I know it being used in the Internet.
Isn't it the same connotation here? The work is shared with your collaborators, but not yet "published" to the master branch or to customers or wherever?
> which has connotations of throwing the draft/sketch away to build the final product
I think it's only software developers who urge others to first write a draft, then throw it away and start working on the real thing. Usually, a draft precedes the "real" version and it's a status attached to something. Eventually, a "draft" becomes "published" or something similar.
Authors, scientists, email writes, report creators, movie/music producers all create drafts that (maybe) eventually become the real thing, I don't think many of them throw away the draft but rather work on the draft until it's not a draft anymore.
Which is definitively not what is meant there. But I think it shows that Gitlab is not a company I'd go to if I wanted linguistic precision.