Hi Yall,
I've been a member of this list for years but this is my first post to the
list.
Given the great many posts already posted, I'll at least try and contribute
something useful.
First, whenever script re-writing might become necessary to change something
like, say "BumList" to "BanList", I had written a utility to do this and then,
years later, the mysql team wrote a better version. ...I wouldn't use their
database - I'm a Postgres guy, worked for Stonebraker at Berkeley when Postgres
was developed in the '90s - BUT, their "replace" utility is fantastic. ...On
one of my boxes, it is provided by: mysql-selinux-1.0.0-8.fc30.noarch
I had also written my own file rename utility, but again, someone did it
better. Apparently since 2011, rename has been a part of the util-linux
package, available from Kernel.org, and already a part of many
distributions. It's darned handy when you have to update a bunch of file
names that match a pattern. And I only learned of it one day when my PATH
was screwed up! Maybe some of you didn't know about it either.
So, for the jdows of the world, keeping your scripts updated doesn't have to be
that hard.
As for master/slave, with Postgres' replication the terms master / slave
weren't embedded into the project, though some people use those terms. In
my book "master" is just fine - has nothing at all to do with slavery but
rather skill, such as in the terms "chess master" & "master chef", or
command as in "ship's master," among a great many others nobody associates
with racism. But instead of "slave", I refer to the copies as replicants.
There are usually many good alternatives, we just have to be sensitive to
not unnecessarily use terms some might deem offensive. In my book "slave"
can be an unnecessary reminder of racial injustices, while at worst
"blacklist" evokes un-just job discrimination, and in any event, what
we're doing with a spam filter IS discrimination. Discrimination in and of
itself is NOT bad, only discrimination for un-just reasons. And
discriminating email based on who it came from is a perfectly valid reason
to discriminate. As jdow said, discrimination on the basis of a positive
or negative contribution or capability is fine, but on the basis of
appearance isn't, to name just a couple of attributes one might
discriminate on.
I STRONGLY agree with what jdow said about not fixing what's not broken (and
most of her other comments). In particular, this IS bad for the project, not
good. (If you want to do something truly helpful about it, see my
recommendation below.)
Jdow's got a few years on me but we probably entered the working world around
the same time and it might be worth a brief comment about background: My first
job in computer science was in 1978, and I wrote (solo) the operating system
for the TANO Outpost's new 6809 processor back in the very late '70s and very
early '80s (real-time, general purpose hardware control with multi-tasking and
a CPU / hardware cooperation to provide virtual memory - it was pretty advanced
stuff for the time). ...In my time in computing I've both employed and been
employed by Turing Award winners (Jim Gray & Michael Stonebraker) and worked on
more projects than I can even recall. So, I have a LOT of experience in this
field.
When I stumbled across all these posts, at first I was annoyed at the
idiocy of it all: light and dark, white and black, have been used by
humanity for as long as there have been records to follow, in every
language, and even earlier than that if we look at art, to describe
desirable and undesirable; anyone who has hurt feelings over this is just
an ignorant person and they have misplaced sensibilities. This usage
likely arises from the fears of our pre-scientific understanding of the
world when there are things we can see and things we cannot and there's a
natural fear of what we don't know & cannot see. (If anyone wants a
readily accessible means of confirming this, please see the copious works
of Joseph Campbell, especially in his video series with Bill Moyers
entitled "The Masks of God" - even better the book series of the same name
that goes back some 30,000 years - worth reading no matter your motive.)
EVERY CULTURE across the globe and throughout time can be easily shown to
use these same metaphors for good and bad, desirable and undesirable. And
I'm sorry but this really is an idiotic change to make to working code -
not that I have a vote.
Now, I can understand not wanting to offend the ignorant people who don't
understand. To my mind the answer is to inform them via a simple web link
to a source that can explain this to those concerned. This would be 1)
doing something about some of the pain of racism some may feel; 2) easy to
implement; 3) educational, and; 4) not consuming resources needlessly and
not adding the risk of new bugs. Why NOT do this instead?! Remember,
everybody's ignorant, just about different things is all! So, fine, we
just help teach them! ...If you feel you have to do something about this
particular problem, I would guess it's because you yourself feel guilty
for not doing anything about racism before - or not enough. This proposed
change to the code is a very poor choice of how to respond.
Now, after being annoyed at the knee-jerk over-reaction, I read ALL of the
comments and was both amused and saddened by what I found in the comments.
... Some people here I've come to REALLY like, and well, there just had to
be a RWNJ in the crowd, now didn't there? Really, park your politics at
the curb, nobody came here (joined the list) to listen to your right wing
politics, especially when it really is neither helpful nor accurate.
...The last serveral posts by the right wing political speaker were
particularly offensive and if I ran the list, I'd give that guy a "time
out." And that's ALL I'll say on the matter.
Now, keep on keeping on, folks,
RT
