I’ve always taken issue with this “master” v. “main” argument.
People think it’s “master” as in “master/slave”, but forked branches are not “slaves”.
Instead, it’s “master” as in “master/proxy”. The forked branches are altered copies of an original. We have remastered movies, music and games, and I’ve never seen anyone complain about the word in this context. Why should version control systems be any different?
I feel master as in “master copy” is sort of problematic too. Git has no concept of “master” as a “master copy”. All the clones and forks are the same fidelity as the original. It’s a hold over from source control which did have an authoritative repo like SVN/CVS.
People think it’s “master” as in “master/slave”, but forked branches are not “slaves”.
I think they’re just uncomfortable with the word “master”, and that seems completely reasonable to me, especially when they’re people from a group which has been subjected to slavery.
I think they’re just uncomfortable with the word “master”
1 person over at Microsoft complained, and they moved mountains for this person to replace master with main. It sounds like a joke, but it’s not.
and that seems completely reasonable to me
No it doesn’t. Why does an entire industry need to flip over, because of a single person? Like the ability of changing the master branch for yourself should have been enough. Changing the default over on Github to strong-arm the rest of the world is disgusting behaviour. Which is why I’m sticking to master wherever I can.
especially when they’re people from a group which has been subjected to slavery.
That is literally every group… Every group has been slaves (and slavers) at some point in time. That’s not a good argument.
I don’t recall any actual person saying they had an issue with it before corporations started changing it though, I always thought it was a precautionary measure more than likely thought up by a committee looking for exactly this sort of thing…
That said, it may be different in the US given the history of overall more systemic discrimination, and divisiveness over what’s acceptable, rather than the fairly widely accepted casual slur-slinging and stereotyping you get in Europe.
I don’t think they have one full time, but I think given the context of the changes it’s very plausible that companies put together committees formed of minorities or marketing or anyone with an opinion to workshop rebranding and renaming options to make the company appear progressive, and I think even if it wasn’t the case, the perception of that sort of thing happening is more responsible than people think for the rise of Trump, AfD, Reform, FN etc. as the average person doesn’t want posturing and is pushed towards the opposite direction by it, with the shift amplified by the fact that people aren’t happy with the status quo at the moment, so if the status quo are acting like the left then the people will see the right as the opposite of that, regardless of who’s in government.
That’s not to say the opinions of the people who you know have complained about it aren’t valid, it’s just that I’d much rather have some dated vocabulary, slurs occasionally being used casually and questionable branding than raids on immigrants and the rights of minorities being eroded after one extreme pushes moderates to the other extreme.
The original audio after mastering is also still called a master, but I haven’t seen anyone complain about that. And that (as well as the same meaning for other media) is the word that the branch name master came from, so etymology can’t really be an argument there (though I also think etymology is terrible reasoning for renaming something in general).
I’ve always taken issue with this “master” v. “main” argument.
People think it’s “master” as in “master/slave”, but forked branches are not “slaves”.
Instead, it’s “master” as in “master/proxy”. The forked branches are altered copies of an original. We have remastered movies, music and games, and I’ve never seen anyone complain about the word in this context. Why should version control systems be any different?
I feel master as in “master copy” is sort of problematic too. Git has no concept of “master” as a “master copy”. All the clones and forks are the same fidelity as the original. It’s a hold over from source control which did have an authoritative repo like SVN/CVS.
I think they’re just uncomfortable with the word “master”, and that seems completely reasonable to me, especially when they’re people from a group which has been subjected to slavery.
1 person over at Microsoft complained, and they moved mountains for this person to replace
masterwithmain. It sounds like a joke, but it’s not.No it doesn’t. Why does an entire industry need to flip over, because of a single person? Like the ability of changing the
masterbranch for yourself should have been enough. Changing the default over on Github to strong-arm the rest of the world is disgusting behaviour. Which is why I’m sticking tomasterwherever I can.That is literally every group… Every group has been slaves (and slavers) at some point in time. That’s not a good argument.
that’ll show 'em, real grown up
it is one word, calm the fuck down bro
I don’t recall any actual person saying they had an issue with it before corporations started changing it though, I always thought it was a precautionary measure more than likely thought up by a committee looking for exactly this sort of thing…
That said, it may be different in the US given the history of overall more systemic discrimination, and divisiveness over what’s acceptable, rather than the fairly widely accepted casual slur-slinging and stereotyping you get in Europe.
I have heard people complain about it.
What makes you think that they have a committee like that?
I don’t think they have one full time, but I think given the context of the changes it’s very plausible that companies put together committees formed of minorities or marketing or anyone with an opinion to workshop rebranding and renaming options to make the company appear progressive, and I think even if it wasn’t the case, the perception of that sort of thing happening is more responsible than people think for the rise of Trump, AfD, Reform, FN etc. as the average person doesn’t want posturing and is pushed towards the opposite direction by it, with the shift amplified by the fact that people aren’t happy with the status quo at the moment, so if the status quo are acting like the left then the people will see the right as the opposite of that, regardless of who’s in government.
That’s not to say the opinions of the people who you know have complained about it aren’t valid, it’s just that I’d much rather have some dated vocabulary, slurs occasionally being used casually and questionable branding than raids on immigrants and the rights of minorities being eroded after one extreme pushes moderates to the other extreme.
Yeah I don’t think anyone was called a remaster, different words even if they share the same root
Also master/slave was used in tech for awhile not just for forked branches, a couple examples are https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E88353_01/html/E37855/scsi-slave-9f.html in SCSI interfaces and replication systems like those used with databases https://jira.mariadb.org/plugins/servlet/mobile#issue/MDEV-18777
The original audio after mastering is also still called a master, but I haven’t seen anyone complain about that. And that (as well as the same meaning for other media) is the word that the branch name master came from, so etymology can’t really be an argument there (though I also think etymology is terrible reasoning for renaming something in general).