Keith, Something in your initial query is teasing my brain.
On the subject of changing terms to something more reasonable, do you know the details of the request? I ask because this starts to get messy with revision control systems. Adding a patch to change the word going forward is easy. But if the intent is to retroactively change the word all the way back.. then I think they might be asking too much. Regardless of the "correctness" of doing this I feel like we need more clarification about what it is these people actually want changed. Hopefully that makes sense. -Ben Sent from ProtonMail mobile -------- Original Message -------- On Jul 22, 2021, 1:55 PM, Keith Lofstrom wrote: > This might be a "plug-talk" subject, but it will affect > how we write and use and archive Linux code, so it belongs > on this list, practically speaking. > > I've used the terms "black-list" and "white-list" for half > a century. I just realized those terms are ideologically > incorrect, and will derail a discussion, sooner or later. > > A little googling revealed alternatives. > > An obvious (and technically more accurate) replacement for > "black-list" is "BLOCK-list". A bit of work to relearn, > but trivial to implement technically. When I forget and > mistakenly say "black", I can pretend you misheard me :-) > > "WHITE-list" is harder, many more variants in play. > "Allow-list" is one alternative (same number of letters); > "Pass-list" is faster to say (same number of syllables). > > Maybe "Pass--list" is optimum, since cut-and-paste changes > checksums but not line and file lengths. > > I bring this up now, and here, because I would like to > resolve this and practice making the change before some > politically-correct pecksniff derails a technical > discussion. Virtue signalling has its place (plug-talk), > but I hope we can make this transition together, without > rancor, maintaining focus on technical virtuosity instead. > > Let's discuss this /technically/ here, /virtuously/ on > plug-talk. When we decide what to do, TOGETHER, how do we > propagate it through millions of lines of code written by > thousands over decades? > > Keith > > P.S. Genetically, I am "very-dilute-black". Many people > with southern-US ancestors are. Some west-African genes > protect against malaria, endemic in the antebellum south. > Linux systems were used to discover this. References > available off-list; discuss on plug-talk. > > -- > Keith Lofstrom [email protected]
