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Comment by burnished | Hacker News Reader

Main is better. Master/slave has uncomfortable connotations. This one isn't a big deal.

Just FYI, it's Master as in Master record. This is different from database terminology where there is a master and slave.

Oh that is neat thank you

> Master/slave has uncomfortable connotations

Why? I think that slavery is bad only if the slaves are people. I want machines to be my slaves! (non-sentient machines only, dear future AI overlords!)

This counterargument is cute, but realistically if ever comes the day that slave feels like an appropriate term to use for my machines, I think I’ll still be a bit queasy.

Because the idea of a slave has immediate connotations of people being enslaved. I'm not talking in some broad philosophical sense of rightness, I mean it brings to mind, for me, thoughts about human slavery that are uncomfortable.

So what? Are we going to find a new word for "driver" because it brings to mind being driven to do something, without autonomy, perhaps against your will too?

Are we going to remove "duplicate" because we can somehow imagine that genetically identical twins are offended by this?

Are we going to remove "admittance" (inverse of impedance) because people will be uncomfortable when reminded that they weren't admitted to their first choice institution?

These are all equally ridiculous to the master/slave debacle.

Those are all ridiculous examples because they are purely hypothetical, but you're missing the point; if enough people felt strongly about those then yeah, we'd probably change the way we talk.

I agree that "main" is better, purely because it's a more intuitive word for that role.

As far as "uncomfortable connotations", would you agree that that's a subjective claim?

I don't like that forced slavery is a thing, but I'm capable of handling context-specific word meanings, and of not getting emotional due to alternative meanings.

Of course it's contextual, it's not an absolute claim on truth. I'm not talking about a hypothetical, I'm talking about real feelings.

Slavery was horrible and should not be forgotten. Erasing all related words so that we can all comfortably forget it ever happened seems … wrong? That’s another way of looking at it, anyway.

How is that erasure? It's ok to change your word choice, and I didn't think slavery being an uncomfortable topic was uncommon until this thread.

Can you please not use the word s____? My ancestors were Slavs, and when I see the word it is a painful reminder of how they were treated as property by Romans who bought and sold their "ex slava" captives.

Your use of the word is violence.

/s?

Where is the slave in git?

There is no "slave" in Git, but the term "master", like many things in Git, is taken from BitKeeper, which did have a "slave". Or so I've read, for example here: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/474419/does-the-...

There isn't, but if you are going to learn about computers then you're going to hear a lot about master/slave relationships. If you don't get exposed to that kind of jargon then it wouldn't surprise me if you don't have that connotation as strongly and instead only thought of master as in "mastery" or the degree after a bachelors.

If you support this, don't complain when you're found guilty of thoughtcrime for something that seems normal and natural to you.

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