#22707: Database-related terminology in docs is misleading
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Reporter: Meira | Owner: nobody
Type: | Status: closed
Cleanup/optimization | Version: master
Component: Documentation | Resolution: wontfix
Severity: Normal | Triage Stage:
Keywords: | Unreviewed
Has patch: 1 | Needs documentation: 0
Needs tests: 0 | Patch needs improvement: 0
Easy pickings: 0 | UI/UX: 0
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Comment (by Noah Slater <nslater@…>):
Sean B. Palmer did some research on this topic for CouchDB after I opened
a similar bug on that project.
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/COUCHDB-2248?focusedCommentId=14009743#comment-14009743
He argues that master/slave was originally used to refer to hardware that
controls other hardware. It has since been borrowed for databases, but
doesn't make conceptual sense as databases are in the business of copying
data, not controlling the behaviour of each other.
There is a separate sense of the word master meaning the primary copy of
something. We use this sense when we talk about master recordings. The two
senses seem to have been confused with each other. When we speak about
master databases, we're talking about master records. And so replica,
copy, or clone are obvious parings.
I thought this was interesting because I am in favour of retiring words
that a discriminatory or offensive to people, regardless of how logical it
is. But this is a clear argument that supports the change while also
neatly explaining why talking about master branches in Git and so on is
fine.
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Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/22707#comment:5>
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