Apple: Updates to Coding Terminology

Apple: Updates to Coding Terminology(developer.apple.com)

13 points by xfr 5 years ago | 10 comments

mike_d 5 years ago |

Here are the actual (inclusive language) changes from the style guide:

   Asia Pacific (n., adj.) - Don’t list Japan separately; Asia Pacific includes Japan.
   Black (adj.) - Capitalize when referring to ethnicity or cultural identity.
   blacklist/whitelist (n., v.) - Don’t use. Instead, use an alternative that’s appropriate to the context, ...
   logic board - Not motherboard, mother board, main board, or main circuit board. ...
   master/slave - Don’t use to describe the relationship between two devices or processes. ...
   slave - Don’t use to refer to a device or process. See also master/slave.
   whitelist - Don’t use. See also blacklist/whitelist (n., v.).

throwaway1997 5 years ago | |

So "main" is also problematic now? I thought that was the replacement for git's master branch?

mike_d 5 years ago | | |

I assume they are deprecating "motherboard" as a gendered term, but the replacement of logic board also replaces a bunch of other names for the same thing.

kasperni 5 years ago | | |

The style guide contains other updates then just "non-inclusive language" [1]. I think the original comment mistakenly included logic board (Apple uses the term logic board instead of mother board/main board).

[1] https://help.apple.com/applestyleguide/#/apdaf2bc3367

hunter2_ 5 years ago | | |

If you're referring to the mandate to say "logic board," I believe that is just a stylistic choice, not a cancellation of "main" in the sense you're thinking of.

hunter2_ 5 years ago |

The deprecation of master/slave is something that crossed my mind some 20 years ago when I was setting jumpers on a IDE optical drive. What shall we substitute slave with, though, given that master is now main? Apache httpd has long used "worker"...

How about black hat (noun or proper noun) and white hat? They're identically problematic as blacklist/whitelist -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-and-white_dualism

pfranz 5 years ago | |

I've seen "worker", "main", "parent/child", and "primary/replica" used as a replacement depending on the context.

choko 5 years ago | | |

I've heard complains from some in various tech industries that parent/child is non-inclusive. I'm not saying I think it should be changed, but doesn't the logic of the people advocating these changes demand that all terms be as inclusive as possible?

Asia Pacific (n., adj.) - Don’t list Japan separately; Asia Pacific includes Japan. Black (adj.) - Capitalize when referring to ethnicity or cultural identity. blacklist/whitelist (n., v.) - Don’t use. Instead, use an alternative that’s appropriate to the context, ... logic board - Not motherboard, mother board, main board, or main circuit board. ... master/slave - Don’t use to describe the relationship between two devices or processes. ... slave - Don’t use to refer to a device or process. See also master/slave. whitelist - Don’t use. See also blacklist/whitelist (n., v.).