Apple: Updates to Coding Terminology | Hacker News Reader

Apple: Updates to Coding Terminology

developer.apple.com

13 pointsxfr10 comments

Here are the actual (inclusive language) changes from the style guide:

   Asia Pacific (n., adj.) - Don’t list Japan separately; Asia Pacific includes Japan.
   Black (adj.) - Capitalize when referring to ethnicity or cultural identity.
   blacklist/whitelist (n., v.) - Don’t use. Instead, use an alternative that’s appropriate to the context, ...
   logic board - Not motherboard, mother board, main board, or main circuit board. ...
   master/slave - Don’t use to describe the relationship between two devices or processes. ...
   slave - Don’t use to refer to a device or process. See also master/slave.
   whitelist - Don’t use. See also blacklist/whitelist (n., v.).

So "main" is also problematic now? I thought that was the replacement for git's master branch?

I assume they are deprecating "motherboard" as a gendered term, but the replacement of logic board also replaces a bunch of other names for the same thing.

The style guide contains other updates then just "non-inclusive language" [1]. I think the original comment mistakenly included logic board (Apple uses the term logic board instead of mother board/main board).

[1] https://help.apple.com/applestyleguide/#/apdaf2bc3367

If you're referring to the mandate to say "logic board," I believe that is just a stylistic choice, not a cancellation of "main" in the sense you're thinking of.

Hah, I see where you're coming from. If your SOC has CPU, GPU, PCIe routing, and networking all packaged up, then the "main" board isn't doing anything all that main anymore. Unexpected sign of the times.

The deprecation of master/slave is something that crossed my mind some 20 years ago when I was setting jumpers on a IDE optical drive. What shall we substitute slave with, though, given that master is now main? Apache httpd has long used "worker"...

How about black hat (noun or proper noun) and white hat? They're identically problematic as blacklist/whitelist -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-and-white_dualism

I've seen "worker", "main", "parent/child", and "primary/replica" used as a replacement depending on the context.

I've heard complains from some in various tech industries that parent/child is non-inclusive. I'm not saying I think it should be changed, but doesn't the logic of the people advocating these changes demand that all terms be as inclusive as possible?

For that matter, "worker" implies something along the lines of "working class" or "unskilled laborer" which isn't all that friendly of a metaphor either. Kind of tough to think of a way to express "doesn't think for onesself, just takes orders" without being mean.

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