Regarding terminology, I have seen, for orthodox chess, 'heavy' and 'light' used interchangeably with 'major' and 'minor'.
Well, it doesn't reallly matter which terms you use to classify these independent aspects of pieces. In orthodox Chess they will always be synonyms, as the Bishop and Knight fall in one group, and the Queen and Rook in the other. Weak and Strong can also be used interchangeably with major and minor. The point is that it is different in chess variants, so what will be synonyms for orthodox Chess, can describe entirely different concepts in variants.
@Jean-Louis: I know that in Xiangqi a Rook slaughters two Cannons. Piece values tend to be dominated by their end-game values, and the value of a Cannon dwindles spectacularly to nothing as the board empties. The Interactive Diagram estimates the value of a Cannon on 8x8 as less than a Knight. I think that is a lot more realistic than Zillions. (You can see all the estimates by clicking on the header of the 'move' column in the piece table of the Play-Test Applet.)
Well, it doesn't reallly matter which terms you use to classify these independent aspects of pieces. In orthodox Chess they will always be synonyms, as the Bishop and Knight fall in one group, and the Queen and Rook in the other. Weak and Strong can also be used interchangeably with major and minor. The point is that it is different in chess variants, so what will be synonyms for orthodox Chess, can describe entirely different concepts in variants.
@Jean-Louis: I know that in Xiangqi a Rook slaughters two Cannons. Piece values tend to be dominated by their end-game values, and the value of a Cannon dwindles spectacularly to nothing as the board empties. The Interactive Diagram estimates the value of a Cannon on 8x8 as less than a Knight. I think that is a lot more realistic than Zillions. (You can see all the estimates by clicking on the header of the 'move' column in the piece table of the Play-Test Applet.)