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| 'Master' and 'slave': Tech terms face scrutiny amid anti-racism efforts |
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| TimFox:
"Grandfathered" has a very specific meaning in regulations: it means that a unit that was legal before the current regulations were issued can still be used or sold. The term is also used for real-estate zoning, where an existing house can still be sold, even if it does not pass current building codes or lot-size regulation. The term has a sordid history: After the US Civil War, when former slaves were now allowed to vote, the reaction in some former Confederate states was to allow only those whose grandfathers could vote before 1865 to vote. "Legacy" just means something left over from previous generations; it does not imply that it does not mean current regulations. The 741 op-amp can be considered a legacy part, and one would normally replace it with something more fashionable, but it is not hazardous. |
| SkyMaster:
I wonder if a person is hit on the forehead if this person still black out. If the person is hit on an eye, will the person have a black eye. And when we turn off the light at night, is it still pitch black. :) |
| ejeffrey:
--- Quote from: Kjelt on July 06, 2020, 01:43:16 pm --- --- Quote from: EEVblog on July 06, 2020, 10:21:50 am ---Told you it never ends. Hope everyone enjoys the future they are creating. --- End quote --- Wait what? Replace Master/Slave with primary/standby uhhhhhhhh how does that ever going to work? When a primary device gets no answer from one of its standby devices this standby device is probably in standby mode. --- End quote --- --- Quote from: TimFox ---Primary/standby" is not a correct replacement for "Master/slave" in its normal technical usage. --- End quote --- Part of the reason for this is that a lot of these terms are used in multiple ways for what are actually completely different things Nobody is saying to replace SPI master/slave with primary/standby. But master/slave is *also* used when referring to things like database and fileserver replication. In that case, primary + backup or standby are more precise and do not rely on a metaphor to explain their function. On the other hand in a load balanced topology you would use different terminology because it is a different thing. Using master and slave in both situations is actively confusing. For hardware interfaces, initiator / target is often a more appropriate choice although again as master/slave are used in many different ways it won't be always the same. Probably the worst example are IDE hard drives with jumpers for master/slave. Which is really just a single bit device address and the drives operate completely independently. This case is so bad that lots of people believe (or did when IDE drives were a thing) that the host only talks to the master device which then relays commands to the slave or at least that one has priority over the other for access to the bus. Neither of which are true. --- Quote from: daqq ---Another example - blacklist. A summary term for entities/places/people/devices/brands that should be denied/avoided/checked with extra care/blocked... Not half of the use cases are covered by the word denylist. There's a restaurant blacklist. What's the newterm for that? Avoidlist? Great, instead of one summary term we get 10 terms --- End quote --- If it is 10 terms for 10 different things, that is a good thing and aids clarity especially when they explicitly state what they mean rather than being an ambiguous metaphor that you have to figure out by context. Are you really, *really* upset that "restaurants I don't like" and the access controls on your webserver can't have the same word? Really? I get that nobody likes change especially they feel that the reasons don't make sense or matter to them but the arguments against a lot of these alternate terms are incredibly stupid. FWIW, I actually have talked to a number of Black scientists and engineers -- people actually working in the field, not activists or politicians. And in many (not all!) cases these terms do bother them or at least did when they were learning and entering the field. They obviously got past it and don't think that the majority of people using these terms are trying to hurt them. But here is the thing: I'm old. I'm not going to be practicing in this field forever. So if this is an inconvenience for me (which it most definitely is) but creates better clearer terminology that also might reduced the alienation some of younger people feel starting off in a field where they already stand out as different, why would I object? |
| ejeffrey:
--- Quote from: tggzzz on July 06, 2020, 11:08:58 am ---"Grandfathered" != "legacy", in many walks of life. Example: people that were driving cars in 1935 (when the driving test was introduced) never had to take the test; they had "grandfather rights". Indeed my grandfather never did take a test, despite driving into the 1980s when he was in his 80s. There are other examples in aviation. As for "y'all" or "folks", no. Just no. Having said that, I think "allow list" is better than "white list"; the meaning is explicit rather than having to be inferred. --- End quote --- Note the list Dave posted was how Twitter is going to change their internal code and engineering documentation. In that situation "legacy" is probably more correct than grandfathered since it probably means "code written an old way that we don't do any more but don't want to go back and change" without necessarily conveying a specific policy exemption. |
| bd139:
Reminds me of: https://youtu.be/XFHg7l8vvHM |
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