Reply to post: Re: "There's no slave in git though"

Re: "There's no slave in git though"

> It's still a reminder of the outdated master-slave trope in computer science.

Not, it's not really.

I have a number of points:

1. Is there anyone out there that has been associated directly with slavery that is calling for this change? I suspect not. The reality is that this kind of thing is proposed by young white right-on types who don't have the first clue about what they pontificate about.

2. The term "master" is a pretty central core concept in git. Branching and how the master branch pertains to that is a tricky subject that many find challenging and it is a bit of a mind f*ck for a lot of people coming to the distributed model for the first time. With respect to getting to grips with GitHub, a tricky subject is going to be made a lot more tricky now that all the blog articles, StackoverFlow posts, GitHub and other related documentation are going to be out-of-date. Let's be clear, the vast majority of it is not going to be updated. Talk about causing unnecessary barriers to youngsters coming into the field that many of their go-to references are going to be a little less helpful. :(

3. I really hate that ignorant people are dictating the agenda here in regards to the use of the term master, in particular in this case. There are far more positive uses of the term "master" than there are negative ones and this kind of tokenism just panders to the idea that the English language lacks context and nuance. When we talk about, say, a "master swordman", we are conferring an honorific to one who has achieved mastery or expertise in that field. There is no sense of slavery, only that one is rightly greater than the others. That title is not taken, it is given as a sign of respect for hard work, knowledge and expertise. The master in this sense is the source of authoritative knowledge, the last word on what is true. This is the sense in which "master" is used in git. It is a positive use of the term: the authoritative source; the most up-to-date; the best source at this point in time. This despicable, dishonest and ignorant distortion of the use of this term in this context, is abhorrent to me and we are no better as a species for walking that path.