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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”

#6
This is just so damn pointless. It will cause some "great" controversy, people will be called white supremacists for refusing to stop saying master.

Now even if this catches on, then yeah OK I'll start naming my branches as main unless I want to make a political statement, which would just add to confusion when developing.

Meanwhile these people will pat each other on the back, yell "yeah! We sure made a difference." while black people keep getting fucked by the system and their lives don't get improved one iota.

just... why?

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

#7

Ok, I have to ask - will one of them be a synonym? I imagine there are millions of hardcoded words out there that will break unless they both map to the same thing.

I'm not really sure what this would look like in practice. Perhaps this would only apply to new repositories, or maybe it will only be the default default. It has never been mandatory for the default branch to be called "master" -- it's just the default value from git and GitHub.

I suppose we will just need to wait and see what happens.

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

#8
"main" does seem like an objectively better word to use. The definition fits better in almost every use case.

May seem like a silly gesture to some, but imagine feeling an emotional trigger every time you had to use a basic tool for your job. That'd piss me off.

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

#10
Using the term master doesn't bother me - in my opinion the idea of the master/slave dynamic is much less problematic when you're talking in the context of bits and bytes flicking up and down on some silicon. Having said that, if it bothers people, change it. I do suspect to a certain extent though that people are more interested in changing it because they're worried it might be offensive to other people than actually finding it offensive themselves.

The follow up tweet from the original reqeustor is:

> 1. “Main” is shorter! Yay brevity!

> 2. It’s even easier to remember, tbh

> 3. If it makes any of my teammates feel an ounce more comfortable, let’s do it!

> 4. If it prevents even a single black person from feeling more isolated in the tech community, feels like a no brainer to me!

1 - Not sure that's an important reason, why not change it to just "M"?

2 - Not for people who are already using git and have lived their entire lives on master (or for those more considerate developers, have lived their entire lives PRing into master)

3 & 4 - This is what I'm talking about, is there anyone who is actually feeling isolated and uncomfortable, or are there just a load of white people who have focused on literally the most unimportant aspect of being a black person in the tech community?

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