[Geek] :rolleyes:

[snide]

Linux team approves new terminology, bans terms like 'blacklist' and 'slave'

Linus Torvalds approved on Friday a new and more inclusive terminology for the Linux kernel code and documentation.

Going forward, Linux developers have been asked to use new terms for the master/slave and blacklist/whitelist terminologies.

Proposed alternatives for master/slave include:

primary/secondary
main/replica or subordinate
initiator/target
requester/responder
controller/device
host/worker or proxy
leader/follower
director/performer
Proposed alternatives for blacklist/whitelist include:

denylist/allowlist
blocklist/passlist
The Linux team did not recommend any specific terms but asked developers to choose as appropriate.

The new terms are to be used for new source code written for the Linux kernel and its associated documentation.

The older terms, considered inadequate now, will only be allowed for maintaining older code and documentation, or "when updating code for an existing (as of 2020) hardware or protocol specification that mandates those terms."

The move to phase out the master/slave and blacklist/whitelist terminologies came after a proposal filed by Linux kernel maintainer Dan Williams on July 4. Linux creator Linus Torvalds approved the proposal on Friday in a pull request for the Linux 5.8 repository.

A GENERAL TREND IN THE TECH COMMUNITY
The Linux team has now joined many tech companies and open-source projects that have removed references to racially-charged jargon from their code for more neutral and inclusive language.

The list includes Twitter, GitHub, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Ansible, Splunk, Android, Go, MySQL, PHPUnit, Curl, OpenZFS, Rust, JP Morgan, and others.

The trend to clean-up insensitive language from source code, tools, and tech documentation began after Black Lives Matter protests erupted in the US, sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.

The primary goal of these efforts is to make tech products and IT environments more welcoming for people of color.

Some members of the tech community have criticized the movement as shallow virtue signaling rather than an action that helps people of color against systematic racism. However, work published in academic journals has previously argued that continuing to use racially-charged terms prolongs racial stereotypes.

[DAB]

many years ago, on a woodworking forum (no longer on line, go figure), they had a built in censor, to filter out naughty words, since children might read the posts and get ideas how to make a bird house for their grandma, and one of the banned words was: bastard file. a very common tool in the file drawer. it came out ********* file.

[The_Dude]

Originally Posted by snide

Linux team approves new terminology, bans terms like 'blacklist' and 'slave'

[Datawiz]

So will blacklist be stay the hell out and slave be worker bee?

[The_Dude]

The interns are now using the Slack dark skinned emojis

[snide]

Originally Posted by The_Dude

The interns are now using the Slack dark skinned emojis

Nice.

[Cybercowboy]

We are approaching peak virtue signalling. As a fellow Linux geek I get about as upset at this as I would if someone belched in a restaurant 10 tables away from me. It's so stupid, changing source code symbols to remove bad words like:

int masterUpdater( struct slaveUnits *su ) {
      while ( 1 ) {
           if ( !oppress( su ) )
               break;
     }
     return 0;
}

[Mike Mercury]

[z06psi]

[Sea Six]

[04 commemorative]

Originally Posted by Sea Six

How many people got this....melanzana

[Aerovette]

On the upside, women can no longer complain about slaving over a hot stove.

[snide]

Originally Posted by aerovette

On the upside, women can no longer complain about slaving over a hot stove.

If they're married, they'll find something else to complain about.

[SQUIRMIN VERMIN 84]

Originally Posted by aerovette

On the upside, women can no longer complain about slaving over a hot stove.

The word masturbate survives by one letter...