I certainly agree we are better off not using anode/cathode. I've
always preferred positive/negative and p-type/n-type as you suggest.
This is just a minor comment on zener diodes. Don't we acknowledge that
zener diodes are backwards? In normal use we say they are "reverse
biased." Even if we use p-type and n-type to name the ends we have a
problem in the sense that current in a regular diode runs into the
p-type end and out the n-type end, but this is not the case in a zener
diode used in the usual way. So it seems to me zener diodes aren't
labeled backwards as much as they just are backwards. That is, whatever
"current rules" we set up for whatever names we give the two ends of a
diode, a zener diode is going to break the rule.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu