I think what we need is early on in the documentation to have a quick and to the point definition of terms. Unfortunately, there is not an industry standard among cad tools so such a section (I'm thinking a page or less) would be a big help. For example, what we call a "footprint" in PCB is a "pattern" or a "stencil" in a couple of other tools.
It's not such a big deal for me now that I know what a slot is and what refdes means, but what about the next noob who tries to use gEDA?
The terms used by gEDA are industry standard, or are at least instantly understandable by practitioners versed in the art. I see no reason to change them. As for newbies, they need to learn the lingo if they want to use the tools. It's as simple as that.
Since there's at least one program that uses more common words, I think it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect gEDA to eventually follow suit.
Nope. GEDA uses well-known terms. I can't speak for Eagle's exact nomenclature, but if gEDA's nomenclature differs from Eagle, it doesn't mean that gEDA is wrong.
-Dan