• rtxn@lemmy.worldM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    88
    arrow-down
    14
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    It’s a retroactive bastardization of the word based on one particular culture’s one particular interpretation of it (master being, apparently, a slaveowner) that ignores both the much earlier meanings of master artisan or master craftsman (as opposed to journeyman and apprentice) and masterpiece (through which an artisan is recognised as a master), and the modern meaning of a master copy (like a master record in disc printing).

    This isn’t like replacing the “master and slave” terminology with regard to connected devices. That one was warranted because it was often inaccurate and confusing. But forcing the adoption of main instead of master feels like someone got offended on someone else’s behalf because a word looked superficially like that other bad word, and apparently we can’t have an understanding that goes deeper than what letters it’s made up of.

    Amerika ist wunderbar. This is an --initial-branch=master household.

    • PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      1 month ago

      regardless of that, it’s never inconvenienced me and it’s still a net gain in readability, since main actually means what it means. have my shell scripts set up to use either one for any repo I’m in automatically.

      • rtxn@lemmy.worldM
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        24
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        Honestly it’s not even about convenience. As far as breaking conventions go, this one has none-to-minimal impact – existing master branches won’t suddenly become invalid. But it’s yet another instance of a subset of a subset of a subset of users getting to enforce their sensibilities for superficial reasons, and ultimately with zero effect regarding the cause they claim to represent; cultural and linguistic differences be damned.

        I’d love to be more specific, but I don’t want the comments to turn into a warzone.

        And don’t pretend like master doesn’t mean what it means.

    • ramsay@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 month ago

      This isn’t like replacing the “master and slave” terminology

      I struggle with SPI (serial peripheral interface). Two of the pins are MOSI/MISO (master-out-slave-in and vice versa). There are some alternative namings, but this one seems especially ingrained in embedded dev

    • PixxlMan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      At some point needlessly banning words just empowers bigots by letting them claim larger and larger parts of the vocabulary. Shouldn’t we try to reclaim words instead, and deprive the words of their power? Just “banning” words, especially in cases such as this one when the connection to master/slave is pretty weak, actually increases the negative power of the words and I’d argue empowers people with malicious intent