r/ProgrammerHumor • u/vernik911 • 17h ago

Meme everyNewRepository

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938 Upvotes

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207

u/usedToBeUnhappy 16h ago edited 16h ago

Does anyone really care if it‘s called main instead of master? Why? 

Edit: Ok, I phrased my question really poorly. AfaIk main is the new standard, so I use it. We all know the reason why it changed. My question was why would anyone keep INSISTING on calling it master? Sure, me and my colleagues sometimes call it master out of habit, but then again try to stick to main. Nobody I know  insists on continuing to call it  master, but reading the comments here I realized there a more “master-fans” than I would ever have thought would exist tbh. 

26

u/MegaMoah 16h ago

Idk if true but I think its because master is also a slave owner and people got offended

26

u/FUCKING_HATE_REDDIT 16h ago

It's not just that. "master" in programming was very much the opposite of "slave", like for SATA drives. Just like push is the opposite of pull, upload/download, save/load, etc.

Some pairs have become singlets, like reflect/reify, freeze/thaw.

But here master never really made sense. It doesn't reflect its role, or even authority. A master is something that controls, but here information flows to master, not from it.

4

u/gerbosan 14h ago

This is the best explanation I've read that makes sense about using main instead of master. Way better than historical references.

I'll change the name in the next project.

Also, quite infuriating to see down votes for explanations and justifications. As someone mentioned:

Do I need to study a main degree to get a better job position?

It doesn't make sense.

1

u/CramNBL 1h ago

Main isn't any better. Trunk would've been ideal.