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I'm developing an application which has an "Event" system that basically allows application extensions to attach events to a certain "context". When the application reaches a context, it will fire events that are attached to it.

Anyway, I don't like the word context; it sounds weird. What alternatives do I have?

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You'll have to expand that a bit. I've no idea what "When the application reaches a context" means - I understand "applications" to be "programs", but in what sense do they "reach" anywhere? And whether you like the word or not, you really need to tell us what you mean by "context" here. – FumbleFingers Jul 19 '12 at 22:50
The app goes trough a series of states. For example: 1. it starts - fires events attached to the "start" context. 2. logs in the user, fires events attached on the "login" context etc.. Basically the context represents a certain action that the app is doing – Anne Jul 19 '12 at 22:53
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Seems like you answered your own question with "state". – MετάEd Jul 19 '12 at 23:04
So when you say "the application reaches a context", it seems you mean "the program performs an action", yes? I write code myself, but I wouldn't use "context" that way. To me, if my code is performing some action (i.e. - executing some function), the "context" just means the collective set of values of all "external" variables that may affect how the function operates. – FumbleFingers Jul 19 '12 at 23:04
yes Fumble. I think I did answer my question. "action" is good alternative :) – Anne Jul 19 '12 at 23:05
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closed as too localized by FumbleFingers, MετάEd, choster, Matt Эллен, kiamlaluno Jul 20 '12 at 15:06

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2 Answers

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Terms like state and context have been mentioned in the question and various comments, along with objections to both. Frame might be suitable; this term is used in animation and video editors to denote points in a sequence where things change. (Sequence point and basic block, or block, or barrier, are related concepts.) If you want a term analogous to context but that carries no baggage from previous uses in IT, consider milieu, meaning a setting or environment. Another word to consider is thunk, which wiktionary inadequately defines as "a delayed computation" and "... a function or procedure taking no arguments" and wikipedia more properly says "a piece of code to perform a delayed computation (similar to a closure)". That is, a thunk is like a self-contained action unit.

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It sounds as if the term you are describing is criterion (plural criteria).

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