4 ms·
If it helps normalise the removal of problematic terminology in tech then this feels like a positive thing. Software development has a troubling history of bein
by mercury_craze 6y ago
If it helps normalise the removal of problematic terminology in tech then this feels like a positive thing. Software development has a troubling history of being an overwhelmingly straight, white, male space, ridding ourselves of terminology that causes friction to new developers who don't fit the standard model has got to be a good thing.
I'm certain that most people would see renaming master to main as fairly benign. However. if a company like Github can be open to making a change like this, even if it is purely symbolic, it sends a message that changes to the status quo are possible.
I've also seen some comments complain about the technical difficulty of this change. If this forces developers to put some effort into updating tools that are hardcoded to refer to the primary branch as master then it's good from a purely technical perspective. Especially to help those of us following trunk-based development who already refer it as the trunk.
- humanrebar 6y ago> Software development has a troubling history of being an overwhelmingly straight, white, male space... Software engineering is incredibly diverse. There are many East Asians, South Asians, Middle Easterners, and people from underprivileged backgrounds from former Soviet block countries. It also has a relatively high percentage of just unique folks. Software engineering also has a diversity problem with respect to female, Latino, and black engineers in particular. I'm just pointing out that "overwhelmingly white" is quite inaccurate.
- mercury_craze 6y agoFair point, overwhelmingly white was poorly chosen - should have left it as problem with diversity.
- Rapzid 6y agoI here Brazil's tech scene was able to attract a lot of latinos. Maybe a template we could apply elsewhere.
- waheoo 6y agoWasnt the first software engineer a woman?