Re: DEP-14: renaming master to main?
Am Mo., 22. Juni 2020 um 23:30 Uhr schrieb Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>:
>
> On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 05:50:02PM +0200, Michael Biebl wrote:
> > there has been a lot of talk recently about how master is a loaded term
> > that should be avoided.
> > If I read the news correctly, github and others are going to change the
> > default master branch to main.
> > I don't really have any strong opinion on that matter myself.
>
> For a while I'd thought that it was relatively harmless in comparison to
> full-blown uses of master/slave metaphors, but I saw some analysis of
> the history recently that pointed out that git got it from BitKeeper
> which did in fact use a master/slave metaphor [1].
> [...]
This is actually untrue and has been clarified by Bastien:
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2020-June/msg00023.html
Even though the "Git master" originates from "master recording" /
"master copy" though, I don't think it's worth the fight or
complaining a lot about people wanting to change it, as long as there
is another metaphor which is equally valid. I think "main" would kind
of fit that original intent best, but let's see what the other
stakeholders in the Git community decide (the guy who originally came
up with the name suggesting a change is certainly influential!).
Personally, I do wonder how the "Git master branch" separates from
other stuff with "master" (but no "slave") in it, like "mastering a
subject" or "Master of science", but I am also not a native speaker,
and lots of people seem to be bothered by it, so changing the name
does make sense to me (definitely for new projects where there is no
risk of breaking something).
Cheers,
Matthias
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