[FFmpeg-user] What is a "pad" in the context of an "input pad", an "output pad" and a "filter pad"

[Phil Rhodes]

 > 2) to add filler material (writing and other places) "let's pad that out to10 minutes"> 3) an electronic contact surface ""solder the red wire to pad #2"
> ...
> In the case of ffmpeg _filters_, it looks like #3 is closest as a point of> interconnection but #2 could apply to 'pad' and 'apad' although IMHO 'fill'> would be a better term.
I would tend to agree that what's going on here is that the English word "pad" has a very large number of meanings and ffmpeg appears to be mixing those meanings in a way that might reasonably be expected to cause confusion.
At least part of this is happening because ffmpeg, by its nature, crosses disciplines between IT and media production. Because of changes in the media industry over the life of the ffmpeg project, this has become more and more true over time, as digital post production has become ubiquitous. It's sort of inevitable this would happen and it probably isn't anyone's fault. Dafter things have happened to Premiere.
It's also not the first time that this sort of collision has occurred (witness the state of colour management in ffmpeg until fairly recently, and I'll never forget the time someone fairly senior started complaining that drop-frame timecode was untidy, to a reaction from more experienced hands that ranged from mirth to disbelief).
It seems that a cleanup of terminology is in order and at least something's going to have to give.
P