Re: Proposal: Replace all references to master/slave in GNOME modules

[Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>]

On Thu, 2019-04-25 at 12:41 +0200, David Woodhouse wrote:
> On Thu, 2019-04-25 at 12:12 +0200, Bastien Nocera wrote:
> > It's easier to completely remove "master" to remove mentions of
> > "master/slave" and to remove the non-gender neutral "master" than
> > it
> > would be to do half of that. Two birds, one stone.
>
> Haha. I see what you did there. But no, we're not talking about
> removing the "non-gender neutral master" either.

I think you're trying to argue that the "master" in "master git branch"
is not a "master" that's derived from the "master" person. I don't
think that holds. See link below.

> Yes, there is a gender-specific word "master" which is also a homonym
> of the one in "master/slave".
>
> No, that isn't the one which is used when we say "the master copy" or
> "the master branch".

They all come from the same word with the same connotations:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/master

FWIW, "master copy" has quite a lot of synonyms that are used in other
languages and can be reused here, such as "copy zero", "original
(copy)", or in some uses "standard copy".

> Besides, we can't use "mainline" anyway, as that is a reference to
> intravenous drug taking and since we can't be expected tell homonyms
> apart or pass basic primary school comprehension exercises by
> applying
> our knowledge of context to the words we see, we'll *obviously*
> interpret all instances of the word "mainline" as references to
> drugs... right?

This is a "slippery slope" logical fallacy. Are you going to argue that
we can't use "trunk" either because of its link to deforestation? ;)