I wish there were a good alternative to master and slave that still had the connotation that the master did all the thinking and issued the orders, while the slave blindly obeyed. There are a fair number of protocols that work like that, and the alternatives I've seen don't capture that dynamic very well.

I've seen Parent and Child, but children definitely don't always do what the parent commands. I've seen Leader and Follower, but again, followers don't just blindly obey, they often let the leader take initiative, but they have some autonomy. Maybe Queen and Drone? I don't know enough about bees or ants to know if that's accurate though.

[–] stingpie@lemmy.world 22 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

I personally think the change from master & slave was kind of silly, as far as I'm aware, it was a bunch of people with no background in CS who thought the application of the term to something that has neither race nor agency was an insult to black people.

But I digress. It led to better guidelines in the Linux kernel, which I think are useful. You should tailor the terms you're using to the specifics of the task. If you have a master process that only has outward interfaces through the slave processes, you could use the term 'director' and 'actor.' if the master process is managing slave processes which compete over the same resources, you can use the terms 'arbiter' and 'mutex holder.' If the slaves do some independent processing the master does not need to know the details of, you can use the term 'controller' and 'peripheral.'

Basically, use a term that is the most descriptive in the context of your program.

Edit: also, I don't know why no one mentions this, but you can also use master/servant. Historically, there wasn't a difference between servant and slave, but in modern days there is, so it's technically different, technically the same.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 weeks ago

Servant gets confusingly close to "server" which is already a badly overloaded term.

[–] state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Domme and Sub?

[–] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What if its a bratty Sub?

[–] state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 4 weeks ago

They someone needs to be punished, don't they?

[–] psud@aussie.zone 19 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

Perhaps people offended by the usage of master/slave in IT need to understand it isn't talking about people

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Not anymore, but it does come from that root.

[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 7 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Technically, so does the word 'robot', but it's not from english, so that linguistic connection to slavery doesn't get noticed.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 weeks ago

That's true.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 4 points 4 weeks ago

Oh c'mon, now we're bringing root into this? /j :p

[–] 7isanoddnumber@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I’ve now got an image in my head of a new satanic panic around daemons and wizards in IT.

[–] T156@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

It would at least be a little more understandable, what with the whole aborting, terminating, or killing children before the parents to prevent zombies.

[–] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 3 weeks ago

I don't think there's much effort to get us to use different terms for that though. Slaved machines and programs though (what's the word got to do with it anyway? It's still going to be one thing directing another and the second following without question)

[–] thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

cult leader and cult follower? but that just seems too long

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Cultleader and cultist.

[–] T156@lemmy.world 8 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Brain and Limb.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 1 points 4 weeks ago

I need repos with these branch names. Main just sounds so lame. This would keep me on my toes

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Cerebrate and Drone

[–] Nasan@sopuli.xyz 3 points 4 weeks ago

Does Overmind only come into play when talking about cloud environments?

[–] bystander@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There are many articles around this topic and offerered alternatives. Though I don't think there's a consensus yet. Companies and individuals who made the change all did something slightly different.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago

Which was an advantage of the old way. At least it was consistent and when you came across that terminology you knew what it meant. It wasn't always the best way to describe the relationship between nodes, but at least it was consistent.

[–] Sir_Premiumhengst@lemmy.world 5 points 4 weeks ago

Lol haven't heard queen and drone... Might use that in the future!

[–] traceur301@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

There is, it's controller and peripheral

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 weeks ago

Peripheral means something different.

[–] Lumisal@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Prime and Deploy?

[–] lessthanluigi@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 month ago

I guess Hypnotist/Hypnotee would be one. Queen/Drone would work well, since there are drone kinks out there as well.

[–] dvlsg@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

Primary and replica works in some contexts.

I don't think git is one of them, though.

[–] overcast5348@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Primary and Clone?

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago

Definitely not a good match for many situations.