It sounds way less offensive to those who decry the original terminology’s problematic roots but still keeps its meaning intact.

You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments
37 points
*

I’m a developer. I use main/release/dev for new projects, because it just sounds better and is more intuitive to me honestly. “Master” doesn’t make much sense. Like what’s so “master” about a “master branch”? It’s just the main branch everything gets merged into. It doesn’t “control” branches. There’s no “master/slave” relationship there. So again, “master” was never really intuitive to me.

Old projects don’t get relabeled, they stay master, cause relabeling the main branch could cause potential problems. That’s my two cents.

permalink
report
reply
6 points

That’s where you should use something more like top / bottom /s

I think in this sense, master is more akin to the ‘recording’ master - The best version of the recording to which others are generated, and all parts merged; no ‘slaves’ necessarily just the ‘master’.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

I think that’s because in computer science most master/slave nomenclature comes from hardware with a command/control structure (still notable in things like Spark where the namenode/master node controls the data nodes).

GIT just took naming conventions from other existing design patterns (although I should probably look up sources to verify that assumption).

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

We renamed everything to keep shared pipelines working with one branch.

permalink
report
parent
reply
24 points

I look at “master” in our repo like you would refer to a master recording or a remaster, or similarly the gold master for when you could say a video game has gone gold.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

That’s why they used master. And this makes the whole “master is a bad word” stupid, at least in Git context.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

I don’t know what a master recording is. Googled it and it seems to be related to vinyl or something. So yeah, kind of hard for me to wrap my head around that, but definitely an interesting outlook.

permalink
report
parent
reply
14 points

the master is the recording, all other recordings stem from

permalink
report
parent
reply
12 points
*

Same for databases, master / slave does not really describe the relationship anymore. It’s a primary, secondary, control node, read only or something else.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-5 points
*

Did you know that most people are not developers, and for many other use cases “master” does in fact imply control?

Edit: I guess not

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

We’re talking about computing here. At least the post does. I guess you could be a QA engineer or something else, but this discussion is mostly a thing with developers.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

Master can also mean proficiency. If you say you’ve mastered a trade it doesn’t mean you enslaved the trade, you simply have complete knowledge of the trade.

So in that context, the master branch is the complete branch. The branch that other branches stem from because it’s the one with code from all the teams. You could branch from another team member’s branch but if that branch hasn’t merged from master in a while, it won’t have all the knowledge (code). When you merge in master you’re getting knowledge from elsewhere from the branch that’s aware of more things than your branch is: the branch that has mastery of the code, the master branch.

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

That’s not how the terms entered computing though. We always used master in opposition of one or multiple slaves. It implies that one component has control and orders the other one around.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

So in a git commit (since they mentioned branches)… What’s the slave? Since your the one gatekeeping the word you should know right? How come Git can’t be Master in the context they provided when there is no existence of a slave commit?

permalink
report
parent
reply

Showerthoughts

!showerthoughts@lemmy.world

Create post

A “Showerthought” is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you’re doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. Avoid politics
    • 3.1) NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
    • 3.2) Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
    • 3.3) Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy’s Code of Conduct

Community stats

  • 5.9K

    Monthly active users

  • 1.2K

    Posts

  • 18K

    Comments