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GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references

zdnet.com

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Re: GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references

#51

Post by mopsi »

lallysingh wrote: post #12
mirthflat83 wrote: post #3

> but also terms like "blacklist" and "whitelist" for "allow list" and "deny/exclude list." Seriously?

Without the racist background, how does one know which list does which? The new names actually describe what they do. The reason it may seem ridiculous is that racism is very, very deep in American culture. The country's culture goes back hundreds of years and is still slowly working on being less so. Here's an example: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/05/11/310708342...

> Without the racist background, how does one know which list does which?

By reading the documentation? I'm not a native speaker of English, nor am I from the US, and this is the first time for me to learn that some people see a racist undertone in these words. I just learned them from docs.

Re: GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references

#52

Post by elcomet »

dingle3 wrote: post #27
lallysingh wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without the racist background, how does one know which list does which? The new names actually describe what they do. The reason it may seem ridiculous is that racism is very, very deep in American culture. The country's culture goes back hundreds of years and is still slowly working on being less so. Here's an example: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/05/11/310708342...

what's the racist background?

Whitelist = allowed list (because white people were allowed in all places). Blacklist = deny list (because black people were denied in many places).

Re: GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references

#53

Post by cs02rm0 »

there_the_and wrote: post #28
bzb3 wrote: post #7

When they ask you what virtue signalling is, show them this.

It's not. This is more like a swear word. No one would expect that calling it the "fuck" branch would be OK. Just because more people are OK with "master" doesn't change the fact that it bothers other people who are just trying to code. This isn't hard to understand.

Master isn't a swear word. This isn't hard to understand.

Re: GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references

#55

Post by drdeca »

waheoo wrote: post #41
dingle3 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's the racist background?

Black people = bad, white people = good. Rosstex posted a good explain below.

The explanation that Rosstex posted does not refer to “black” people, or to “white” people?

Re: GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references

#56

Post by Kiro »

mirthflat83 wrote: post #13
mavhc wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes sense, better wording and less racist.

Nothing about those terms are racist. What’s next, renaming the color “black”?

No, but I've heard a lot of people saying we should stop using "dark" and "black" in association with evil, e.g. black magic or dark thoughts.

I'm not saying it's the right or wrong thing to do.

Re: GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references

#57

Post by gonational »

Yet another reason to not use GitHub (aka Microsoft’s next “embrace, extend, extinguish” victim).

I don’t support racism. I don’t support slavery.

The prior two statements have nothing to do with the terminology that I use to make programs. These corporations’ attempts to fuck up our language shouldn’t be seen as anything philanthropic. They are virtue signaling at best and societal cancer at worst.

Re: GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references

#58

Post by there_the_and »

cs02rm0 wrote: post #53
there_the_and wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not. This is more like a swear word. No one would expect that calling it the "fuck" branch would be OK. Just because more people are OK with "master" doesn't change the fact that it bothers other people who are just trying to code. This isn't hard to understand.

Master isn't a swear word. This isn't hard to understand.

Obviously people feel otherwise, and it's changing regardless of whether you are able to understand or not.

Re: GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references

#59

Post by exabrial »

We could have a bunch of reform: from reducing the police force size and budget, to removing pointless offenses ("no victim no crime"), to reduce interaction with police, to eliminating all government programs so to eliminate financial dependency on the government (create a toehold for systemic racism)...

Yet, we're renaming git master to git main. The profound and widespread impact of this will surely sweep the nation and cure systematic racism. /s

Point being: Everyone is more than willing to say they support change, nobody is willing to do anything difficult, so they put forward crap PR moves like this that are completely non-consequential.

Re: GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references

#60

Post by jacksnipe »

derefr wrote: post #16

I always understood a VCS “master” branch to be in reference to “master” records / the “mastering” process of audio mixing, which in turn is a use of a sense of the verb “to master” akin to “to master one’s courage”—not conveying dominance, but rather the reaching of an apex in skill. If you’re in the market for a replacement that keeps the metaphorical power, though, I might suggest having a “mother” branch. “Mother…

It’s not. It comes from master/slave, and I’m desperately trying to find the mailing-list email where someone (I wanna say on a BSD mailing list, but it could be anything tbh) traces the etymology backwards through different VCS branches until we get to one where the concepts are clearly “master/slave”. If anybody has the link handy I’d really appreciate it.
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