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by jazoom 2810 days ago
As I was familiarising myself with Go recently I was surprised to see the word "panic" so often. Panic disorder is a real and debilitating disease. I wonder when that terminology will change. But at least it's not as bad as other languages where you need to spawn and then kill child processes. "Abort" is another word we shouldn't use since it reminds some people of the killing of unborn babies. Don't even get me started on the fact that most web pages are predominantly white.
2 comments

I'll bite. These terms, and particularly "panic" and "kill" have negative connotations in software. These are things that we generally prefer to avoid when creating our systems. On the other hand, the terms "master" and "slave" have been used in the context of databases with an entirely neutral sentiment, and I think that's where the problem lies, as it (slightly) normalizes the word "slave".
So you reckon if a parent was triggered about the murder of their own child they'd be consoled by the fact that it's a bad process that's being killed?

And you reckon a slave who is triggered by the word "slave" would care about that little detail just the same?

Has anyone even asked slaves or former slaves if this is something they care about? Perhaps they'd prefer the word "slave" not being buried by becoming taboo.

Have you asked a father how he feels about this wording, after his partner aborted his child without his knowledge?

Or, are you just making stuff up to justify these changes because they make you feel better.

Keywords Reserved Words Trigger words