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Comment by hn_throwaway_99 | Hacker News Reader

This attempt at "de-offensive-izing" all language has the effect of turning clear, evocative phrases to mush.

George Carlin's skit couldn't be more timely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isMm2vF4uFs

Putting myself in the shoes of a kid learning about computers, I find some of these phrases to be more clear, not less clear.

Two examples:

Allowlist and denylist are much clearer to a kid learning about computers than whitelist or blacklist. If you've never heard of whitelist before, it's sounds like a list of things that are white. If you've never of allowlist, it's pretty obvious what it means - a list of things that are allowed.

Similarly, mainboard is clearer than motherboard. Mainboard implies there's one main board. Motherboard could be more ambiguous to someone who's never seen the inside of a computer. Are there two boards, mother and father? Do boards somehow inherit from one another? Is there a grandmother board that's even bigger? Obvious to us, but not obvious to a kid learning computers for the first time.

Not saying these terms are better (there's a huge switching cost and the terms are less colorful), but do want to point out there are dimensions to consider beyond inclusivity. One benefit is better language precision.

> Mainboard implies there's one main board. Motherboard could be more ambiguous to someone who's never seen the inside of a computer. Are there two boards, mother and father?

Am I crazy or does mainboard strongly imply there's more than one -- eg main, supporting / secondary, etc? Stories have a main character which is almost by definition not the only character in the narrative.

Well, there used to be daughterboards (but no sonboards).

"Parentboard" is probably better than "mainboard", but given the choice between "motherboard" and "mainboard", which are the two currently-accepted terms for that particular component, I'm going to go with mainboard.

Edit: isn't the videocard technically a "non-main-board"? I mean nobody called it a "daughterboard" but it kind of technically is one isn't it? And so if "mainboard" implies the existence of "non-main-boards"... that accurately describes its relationship with the video card, which is a baord.

Good point. A similar lack of clarity also tripped me up when some documentation switched from "master key" to "main key" because there actually was an additional concept called a "standard key" which seems to have a lot of potential conceptual overlap with "main key".

https://twitter.com/canadaduane/status/1465737258850344961

There are still other boards you attach to the motherboard. A GPU is a board, a memory module is soldered onto a controller board, etc

It appreciate the idea to make language more precise where possible.

However, terms like motherboard and whitelisting are just a few in the universe of complicated (yet gender neutral) terms like GPU, CPU, DDR, parity, firewall, IP6, etc.

Of course, that is not a reason to not improve the language where one can, but I don't know if it will help that much in CS.

In reality these types of changes often just make learning more difficult, because now you have to learn that it's called both "motherboard" and "mainboard". At least for a generation or two.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iKcWu0tsiZM

A short-film/parody on how an extreme obsession with inclusive speech makes it impossible to communicate clearly without consequences.

Carlin was a genius and ahead of his time.

It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.

"Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller."

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/450328-don-t-you-see-that-t...

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