Eugenia,

It's a hangover from the days of linear editing with film or, later, video (e.g Hi 8 etc) editing to VHS. In going through the original material you would identify the in and out points of the various scenes you wanted to use. You would then arrange these in the order you wanted them to appear in the final version.

With film you would cut (literally) the film, place each cut in a small numbered container and then splice them together manually as needed. With the video programmes the identifiers (usuallyu some form of Time Code) for the selected scenes would usually be stored electronically and could then be rearranged within the programme itself. The programme would then play the source scenes in the right order and record them to tape as required.

When I transferred to NLE I thought I would miss the EDL but in fact Vegas makes it easy to do without provided you do things in a sensible order - I usually use Batch Capture and can then select the scenes in the order I want them to appear in the Timeline where they can be edited (although I often prefer to do the fine cuts via the Trimmer and transfer from there).

Regards,

Richard