RFC: Conscious language in the Binutils

[Alan Modra]

On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 05:33:46PM +0100, Florian Weimer via Binutils wrote:
> * Hans-Peter Nilsson:
> 
> > None had any sort of company footer.
> 
> I was referring to this message:
> 
>   <https://sourceware.org/pipermail/binutils/2020-November/114018.html>

That was careless of me.  I should have removed that part of my
automatically added signature from all emails in this thread.
Quite obviously IBM has a different official position.

I've spent a few days thinking over just why I have a visceral
reaction to being told that "master" and "slave" are now words to be
avoided.  I believe I can now articulate what is really at the heart
of my objection, but to do so is a little challenging for me and I'm
mindful of the old proverb "You can lead a horse to water but you
can't make it drink".  So I might write something more, but I also
might not.

For now I'll point at some trivia, unrelated to my core objection:  The
objections are mostly from people outside the USA.  That's curious,
don't you think?

Also, I'm sorry to have entertained the thought that either "one of my
co-workers must have complained to an IBM VP or the VP wasn't telling
the truth".  I really, really hate that sort of thinking.  Yes, even
when I do it myself.  Such is the evil power of an anonymous
accusation, shame on me for falling for it.  I refuse to allow that
thought to remain.  Most likely neither conclusion is actually true.

-- 
Alan Modra