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+# Glossary
+
+This is meant to give a rough overview of (train-related) terms used in
+this code; both for others as a reference and for me so I can remember
+to use them in a (somewhat) consistent way, since they are somewhat
+arbitrary. I've tried to remain at least broadly close to the
+terminology used by GTFS.
+
+## Terms
+
+(Calendar-)Date / Day
+: A single, unique day (e.g. 1970-01-01). Usually used to indicate if a
+ *trip* is running on that day or not.
+
+Time (of Day)
+: Time on a given day, given in seconds (though often displayed as
+ minutes) since midnight. If a trip crosses midnight it is treated as if
+ it took place entirely on the previous day, and times simply count up
+ beyond the total number of seconds in a day (note that that's a
+ timezone-series dependent number).
+
+Trip (don't confuse with Train)
+: Used as in GTFS: a trip is a defined sequence of *stops*, referred to by
+ a number (called its trip ID, e.g. IC 94). Usually runs on multiple
+ days. Always has an associated *shape*.
+
+ (might match your intuition for "train line")
+
+Stop
+: A *station* with associated arrival/departure *time*.
+
+Station
+: A train station. Tracktrain refers to each by an ID, and hopefully knows
+ its geolocation.
+
+Shape
+: A sequence of geolocations describing a line between stations,
+ describing the physical railway along which trains travel.
+
+Train (don't confuse with Trip)
+: A single instance of a *trip* on a concrete *date*. Tracktrain mostly
+ concerns itself with keeping track of those; the rest is just additional
+ stuff.
+
+Vehicle
+: An actual, physical vehicle, which might act as the *train* going along
+ a *trip* on a certain *date*.
+
+ For now tracktrain doesn't really care about them (but if it's curious
+ it might yet learn about them!)
+
+Announcement
+: The thing that GTFS calls "Service Alert" --- a text message giving
+ human-readable information about some *train*.
+
+(Train-)Ping
+: A single packet of data sent from a train's *OBU*. Might arrive in some
+ arbitrary order.
+
+Control Room
+: The "admin interface" of tracktrain, which is not meant to be used by
+ on-board staff.
+
+On-Board Unit (OBU)
+: A thing on a vehicle which does geolocation tracking and yells at
+ tracktrain about it.
+
+ If we ever run into potential confusion regarding this term we're
+ probably way too professional to actually use tracktrain for anything.