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Linux Team Approves New Terminology, Bans Terms Like 'Blacklist' and 'Slave'

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday July 15 2020, @12:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the ban-hammer dept.

mrpg writes:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-team-approves-new-terminology-bans-terms-like-blacklist-and-slave/

Linus Torvalds approved on Friday a new and more inclusive terminology for the Linux kernel code and documentation.

Going forward, Linux developers have been asked to use new terms for the master/slave and blacklist/whitelist terminologies.

The Linux team did not recommend any specific terms but asked developers to choose as appropriate.

The new terms are to be used for new source code written for the Linux kernel and its associated documentation.

The older terms, considered inadequate now, will only be allowed for maintaining older code and documentation, or "when updating code for an existing (as of 2020) hardware or protocol specification that mandates those terms."

Also At:
Linux kernel will no longer use terms 'blacklist' and 'slave'

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by driverless on Wednesday July 15 2020, @01:49AM (19 children)

    by driverless (4770) on Wednesday July 15 2020, @01:49AM (#1021626)

    Blacklists weren't, in (approximately) IT use they go back to financiers who used cheque blacklists and later credit card blacklists, originally printed out on paper and mailed to stores, and in pre-IT times they go back decades if not centuries, see e.g. "Hollywood blacklist". So geeks just used a well-established term with a widely-known meaning.

    And that's the problem with this touchy-feely "did not recommend any specific terms but asked developers to choose as appropriate", if I see "blacklist" and "whitelist" I know exactly what I'm dealing with, but if I see "noodlelist" and "meatballlist" I have to spend ages reverse-engineering metadata to figure out what on earth each one is. If you're going to replace long-established terms that have a known meaning then at least come up with a unified replacement for them.

    And figure out what to use in place of greylist, which accompanies whitelist and blacklist.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @01:51AM (11 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @01:51AM (#1021628)

    There's other issues. For example, you can have white lists, blacklists and greylists for use with your email. With other colors that wouldn't work and with other words it gets rather complicated. People generally know what two of those words are already, the third doesn't require much explanation that it's in between the two options.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:01AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:01AM (#1021637)

      blacklist = badlist
      whitelist = goodlist
      graylist = ???

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:36AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:36AM (#1021663)

        blacklist = badlist
        whitelist = goodlist
        graylist = doubleplusungoodlist

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Wednesday July 15 2020, @03:17AM

        by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 15 2020, @03:17AM (#1021687) Homepage Journal

        delaylist?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @11:06AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @11:06AM (#1021812)

        Badlist and Goodlist are associated with santa claus. As a devout atheist and anti-consumerist I renounce your trying to oppress me with your christian words.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:02AM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:02AM (#1021638)

      "block-list/pass-list/, director/executor, source/sink"

      Time to exercise that imagination instead of that emotional outrage.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:46AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:46AM (#1021672)

        Playing sport, making a film, running software, leaking information and washing my hands of it all.

        Why do you hate me bigot?

      • (Score: 3, Touché) by chromas on Wednesday July 15 2020, @06:15AM

        by chromas (34) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 15 2020, @06:15AM (#1021748) Journal

        Emotional outrage is the entire reason for changing the terms in the first place.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @11:11AM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @11:11AM (#1021813)

        Nope, can't use executor (nor executive) because it has associations with capital punishment.

        • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday July 15 2020, @11:52AM

          by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday July 15 2020, @11:52AM (#1021832) Journal

          Hmmm … “Chief Executive Officer”? But then “capitalism” and “capital punishment” obviously share linguistic roots, so maybe it fits. ;-)

          --
          The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @03:02PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @03:02PM (#1021952)

          the highest title in our company is now "secretary"
          let that sink in for a moment
          and yes occupied by a female at the moment

          • (Score: 4, Funny) by Bot on Wednesday July 15 2020, @05:29PM

            by Bot (3902) on Wednesday July 15 2020, @05:29PM (#1022002) Journal

            IF IT WAS GOOD ENOUGH FOR STALIN IT IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU
            sheesh

            --
            Account abandoned.

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:02AM (5 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:02AM (#1021639) Journal

    if I see "blacklist" and "whitelist" I know exactly what I'm dealing with, but if I see "noodlelist" and "meatballlist" I have to spend ages reverse-engineering metadata to figure out what on earth each one is.

    Because allow/deny is such a hard terminology that the next easier choice is noddle/meat, right?
    Do you have a speech impediment?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Wednesday July 15 2020, @03:52AM (4 children)

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 15 2020, @03:52AM (#1021710) Journal

      allow/deny is a poor choice because both terms have two syllables. pass/fail would work though. So would do/skip. And lots of other choices. Getting a new consensus, however, maybe difficult.

      --
      Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.

      • (Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday July 15 2020, @04:10AM (1 child)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 15 2020, @04:10AM (#1021718) Journal

        Getting a new consensus, however, maybe difficult.

        Rrright. Even more so because Microsoft uses allow/deny for their ACL and Linux must never adopt Microsoft terminology (grin)

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

        • (Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday July 15 2020, @05:29AM

          by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Wednesday July 15 2020, @05:29AM (#1021738)

          Rrright. Even more so because Microsoft uses allow/deny for their ACL and Linux must never adopt Microsoft terminology (grin)

          Considering that if they did Microsoft would probably use it as grounds for a lawsuit so it might be for the best. (big grin)

          --
          "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @05:36AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @05:36AM (#1021740)

        That has sexual connotations that are offensive to those of us on the skip list.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2020, @04:24AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2020, @04:24AM (#1022279)

          Not to mention ableist concerns. Many disabled people are not capable of skipping.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:11AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:11AM (#1021648)

    they go back to financiers who used cheque blacklists and later credit card blacklists

    "account balance being in black" seems to be good to their mind.