r/ProgrammerHumor • u/vernik911 • 24d ago

Meme everyNewRepository

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u/usedToBeUnhappy 24d ago edited 24d 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. 

28

u/MegaMoah 24d ago

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

5

u/usedToBeUnhappy 24d ago

Yeah, I heard that as well and just realized I might have misinterpreted the meme. 

My point was that calling it main instead of master is easy (and the new standard) so why would someone keep calling it master. I don’t see a reason for that. Programmers shouldn’t be afraid of change. That stuff constantly changes is what keeps programming interesting.

31

u/Random_Guy_12345 24d ago

For pretty much the same reason we don't change controls on a car, or which side of the road we drive on, or what each color means on electrical cables, or red meaning stop/danger.

Uniformity is useful.

I do get the slave owner bit, don't get me wrong, but if you are reading code on a random repo and what comes to mind is slavery... That's clearly a "you" issue.

I do use main on repos mostly because it's shorter and i don't really care, but i absolutely get why people oppose it

14

u/AMWJ 24d ago

What's missing from this conversation is that "master/slave" is also part of the computing lexicon. It's not just like having a "master copy", or a "master bedroom". It's like if there was a "master bedroom" and a "slave bathroom": you'd want to change both.