[el_nahual]

> On a more technical and pedantic level, having a "master" branch really doesn't make any sense without slave branches.

The reason master branches are called master branches is as an analogy to a music/record "master", which means "the original, the truest, the canonical".

(In an analog world where every copy necessitated deterioration, there was a need to say "this is THE version").

So git master branches meant the same thing: canonical. That's why the name "makes sense" even though there are no slave branches.

Just adding this here out of a sense of duty for historical accuracy, and not commenting on the name change itself.

[headhuntermdk]

Since we are talking about branches, wouldn't a "root" branch makes more sense?

[el_nahual]

It doesn't really matter which makes "more sense." You could call it the canon branch, the root branch, the trunk branch, the main branch, the master branch, whatever.

The point is that the word master, in this context, has a different etymology that the word master in say, a database. Now, that might not matter: if you care about changing the name of the branch you probably care about the way the name makes people feel, not the etymology of the word, and perhaps that's a good argument (personally I don't know and don't really care). Nonetheless, the etymology of the word is a factual statement, so I was correcting a poster who was assuming it was an analogy to a different context.

[headhuntermdk]

words do matter.. if they didn't, none of us on the thread would be talking about it. You can't splain away how a person from a different group feels or why. What is nice about other SCM systems like Mercurial, Fossil, CVS, SVN.. or basically anything not Git.. is that the language is clear and not offensive to anyone. It really is that simple

[dreamer_]

No, because root has already an established, clear meaning in Unix world.

[kps]

I wanted ‘trunk’, like SVN. That ought to be safe, since there's no one speaking for the trees.

[GauntletWizard]

I look forward to the tech sector getting into fights with The Lorax, or more seriously, the Sierra Club.

[Sohcahtoa82]

The Lorax would like a word with you.

[headhuntermdk]

Coming from Mercurial which calls its default branch.. well "default" to Git which calls its default branch "master" was very jarring for me. So yeah, I definitly noticed