(With the draft docs now comitted, this issue is the home for thrashing out the terminology. I'm not going to propose taking this to import-sig or python-dev, because the bikeshed would end up being fuschia or pink-with-yellow-polkadots or something)

However this turns out, the names in the glossary and the ABCs in importlib should match for 3.3b2. I wouldn't bother with programmatic deprecation here (it's a PITA), just note them as deprecated aliases in the docs.

However, I also think we need to take into account the naming precedents established (or endorsed) by importlib and think carefully about whether which ones we want to change.

1. importlib currently uses "importer" to mean an object that is both a finder *and* a loader (hence BuiltinImporter, FrozenImporter as meta path hooks). This is the original meaning of the term as defined in PEP 302

2. importlib uses the "PathFinder" term for what Barry has proposed to call the "path importer". If we go with this change in terminology, then we should change the general term "meta path finders" to "meta path importers", as that would make the usage of the term "importer" consistent across the three default meta path hooks. There would no longer be a special term to denote an importer that returned itself as the module loader. However, I'm now -1 on making this change: I'd prefer to preserve the distinction that an importer is a finder that returns itself as the loader, which means the path finder doesn't qualify.

3. I still find it confusing to have two different kinds of "finder". If the meta path finders keep their name (as I now prefer), then it is the path entry finders that need to move. While "handler" is a ridiculously generic term, the chain "path finder"->"path hook"->"path entry handler"->"module loader" strikes me as being easier to follow than "path finder"->"path hook"->"path entry finder"->"module loader". The only name change required for this adjustment in terminology would be that importlib.FileFinder would become importlib.DirectoryHandler

4. There would be a slight tweak to the definition of "importer" to mean objects that are either a meta path finder and module loader (i.e. BuiltinImporter, FrozenImporter) or else a path entry handler and module loader (i.e. zipimport.zipimporter)