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GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

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Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#251

Post by waheoo »

Foxboron wrote: post #45
zucker42 wrote: post #14

I'm a strong supporter of social justice. I don't really object to people putting in work to change language like that if they think it's important. Especially when the work required is minimal. That said, this is slightly ridiculous. Have customers seriously complained about the term "master"? And my impression was that the usage was more similar to "master copy" than "master of the plantation". Honestly, it's frust…

>And my impression was that the usage was more similar to "master copy" than "master of the plantation". Evidently, this is a relic from bitkeeper which uses the "master/slave" terminology. https://github.com/bitkeeper-scm/bitkeeper/blob/master/doc/H... https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2019-May/...

No this is not a relic from bitkeeper. Why dont you ask the dev responsible instead of some random on a mailing list stringing assumptions to fit a narrative.

https://mobile.twitter.com/xpasky/status/1272280760280637441

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#252

Post by waheoo »

crocodiletears wrote: post #119
luckylion wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not one progressive asked for this Is the SJW crowd not progressive? Are they not "real progressives"?

A lot of oughties progressives fail to realize that they won the lions share of the first phase of the culture war going into the early teens. At that point, they stopped being progressive, and instead became the status quo (not necessarily conservative, but relativistically more adjacent to conservatism now). Because they can't see this, they're loath to let go of the label in spite of the fact that they're now 'jus…

Im so confused by these labels. I did the political compass thing and fell hard in the bottom left quadrant of left leaning libertarian.

Doesnt that mean i should align with these sjw types? Personally i find them detestful.

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#253

Post by waheoo »

mercury_craze wrote: post #230

If it helps normalise the removal of problematic terminology in tech then this feels like a positive thing. Software development has a troubling history of being an overwhelmingly straight, white, male space, ridding ourselves of terminology that causes friction to new developers who don't fit the standard model has got to be a good thing. I'm certain that most people would see renaming master to main as fairly benig…

Wasnt the first software engineer a woman?

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#255

Post by sourdoughness »

umvi wrote: post #216
takinola wrote: post #123

As a black person, speaking just for myself, I really do not get the issue around semantics like this. The word "Master" is not synonymous with any race and so does not make me (or anyone I know) uncomfortable. The concept of masters (and slaves) exist and are useful metaphors for naming similar phenomenon. I would much rather focus on issues that make people truly less comfortable in technology, like hiring or spons…

It just seems like an ultimately meaningless gesture. Is erasing the word "master" from the English language going to actually help anyone? What's next - is the lock company Master Lock going to have to change their company name?

After watching a lot of Lock Picking Lawyer episodes, I’d propose the word they need to change is “Lock”.

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#256

Post by xellisx »

humanrebar wrote: post #233
xellisx wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if you look at that it analogy of a tree, what is a "Master branch". Also what is a "Main branch". It's trunk. Of course then it would be called "The trunk branch", which sounds silly too me, and trunk has a couple sexual slangs tied to it. I read on person naming theirs 'prd', 'uat', and 'dev'. Less typing and describes what the branch is for.

While we're being pedantic, it's a graph, not a tree.

So bar, line, pie, scatter, etc. would be good names. Hehe.

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#257

Post by valand »

It's sad to hear this instead of people taking action against actual slavery.

This is onomatophobia, fear of hearing names. Github is catering to people trying to ignore the problem (slavery) that still exists because of inaction instead of clearing the name "master" from the bad connotation. Logically, it's difficult to battle problems (like slavery) by forgetting it or ignoring that it exists in the first place.

The change is counter-productive for both social and technical contributions.

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#258

Post by sourdoughness »

_never_k wrote: post #97
zucker42 wrote: post #14

I'm a strong supporter of social justice. I don't really object to people putting in work to change language like that if they think it's important. Especially when the work required is minimal. That said, this is slightly ridiculous. Have customers seriously complained about the term "master"? And my impression was that the usage was more similar to "master copy" than "master of the plantation". Honestly, it's frust…

The terminology of master/slave architecture is a direct reference to the working relationships between people on an antebellum plantation. Names should help you understand what things do, and those names do. We also have node that elect leaders, nodes that get fenced, nodes with parents and children, etc... The terminology of our software architecture, and of our software in general, mirrors that of the real world r…

Master in git doesn’t (as far as I understand) refer to master/slave architecture though. It’s a “master” as in as in the version from which copies are derived.

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#259

Post by dang »

phkahler wrote: post #71
snlacks wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's because people are offended at the use of the word master, in this case. I think, that it's symbolic. By making a point of getting rid of the word master, you're showing that black lives matter.

[flagged]

Please keep denunciatory flamewar rhetoric off this site. If you have a substantive point, you should have no trouble expressing it within the site guidelines.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#260

Post by noobermin »

takinola wrote: post #123

As a black person, speaking just for myself, I really do not get the issue around semantics like this. The word "Master" is not synonymous with any race and so does not make me (or anyone I know) uncomfortable. The concept of masters (and slaves) exist and are useful metaphors for naming similar phenomenon. I would much rather focus on issues that make people truly less comfortable in technology, like hiring or spons…

Superficial changes like this are easy, actually changing hiring is harder. One thinks this is being done to quell demands for actual substantive change.
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