Peter, I believe we're just copying Oracle's terminology. While that terminology is not consistent, it is understood by the industry. Oracle defined their Hot Standby to have both asynchronous and synchronous modes: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/rdb/htdocs/dbms/hotstandby.html
The other industry term which would be understood would be "log-based replication". Terms we invent would be less likely to be understood, and users would not get excited about them. Otherwise, I say we go with "simmering follower". ;-) -- Josh Berkus PostgreSQL Experts Inc. www.pgexperts.com -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers