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Comment by RenaudWasTaken | Hacker News Reader

This discussion already happened multiple times on the git Mailing list. e.g: https://public-inbox.org/git/CAOAHyQwyXC1Z3v7BZAC+Bq6JBaM7Fv...

From: Konstantin Ryabitsev

Git doesn't use "master-slave" terminology -- the "master" comes from the concept of having a "master" from which copies (branches) are made:

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_recording

The concept predates the music business and goes back to middle ages when a guild master would create a "master work" or "master piece" that the apprentices could use for study or for imitation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_craftsman

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There's a GNOME mailing list discussion which suggests the etymology is different.

""" First appearance of "master" in git is in a CVS helper script... Why is that branch called master? Probably because BitKeeper uses "master" for its main branch... But maybe this "master" isn't the same one that's in "master/slave"? """

It then links to a BitKeeper file saying:

"We are then going to modify the file on both the master and slave repository and then merge the work."

https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2019-May/...

I'm astonished anyone ever thought otherwise. Has anyone ever encountered a git branch called 'slave'?

Here's roughly 4,000 instances of branch names containing 'slave' for you to peruse:

https://github.com/search?q=head%3Aslave

There's a quite a few false positives in that list (e.g. a person named "slavek" always using his name in branch names), a few references to the "master/slave" analogy, and browsing the first few pages I keep seeing the same usernames over and over again (mostly from what seem to be non-native English speakers).

So the number seems much lower than 4000, and mostly the result from a very small group of people. I don't know how many branches there are in GitHub, but this seems like a very very small percentage.

It has become increasingly obvious that the Roman alphabet and English language must be replaced due to their overwhelming historical baggage.

Replaced with what, though? Nobody talking about "slave" seems to notice that "servant" and "robot" have similar baggage despite different linguistic roots.

> Replaced with what, though?

With a glorious newspeak that greatly improves on the legacy language by simplifying the grammar and adding safety mechanisms to ensure all conversations are safe spaces.

Nobody talking about "slave" seems to notice that "servant" and "robot" have similar baggage despite different linguistic roots.

As I sometimes say, I've been Black my entire 50+ years on the planet. I've never met another Black person (or anyone regardless of their race or ethnicity) that felt that robot has “similar baggage” to the word slave.

Otherwise +1, but a masterpiece is what the apprentice would create in a bid to demonstrate that they're ready to be a master. Think of it as the hands-on version of a MSc thesis.

Turns out that Git’s master terminology decended from the master/slave concept and not the master copy concept: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2019-May/...

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