Pseudoterminal terminology (was Re: Rename "master" branch to "main"?)

[Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)]

On Sun, 5 Jul 2020 at 16:55, J William Piggott <elseifthen@gmx.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On Sat, 4 Jul 2020, Zack Weinberg wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Jul 2, 2020 at 4:58 PM Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I don't want to commit to terminology until I've had a go at rewriting
> > the manual, because I think doing the rewrite will be the easiest way
> > to figure out whether the new terms are good, but what I'm currently
> > thinking is:
> >
> >    "pty master device" -> "pty line-side device" or "outside device"
> >    "pty slave device"  -> "pty host-side device" or "inside device"
> >    /dev/ptmx stands for "pseudoterminal multiplexer"
> >    /dev/pts  stand for "pseudoterminals (directory of)"
> >
> > Currently I like "line-side" and "host-side" because it seems like a
> > natural generalization from true terminal device nodes (which are
> > always host-side) to pseudoterminals (additionally have a line-side
> > device node).  And it can generalize to the relationship between
> > Linux's /dev/ttyNN and /dev/vcs(a)NN as well.
>
> I'm not sure that line-side would be quickly relatable. Perhaps even
> ambiguous, as both ends have a line-side. Online, both ends are hosts as
> far as that goes. In old terms only one end was a 'terminal'; the other
> end was the mainframe, right?
>
> If we want to evoke online terminals of old; there are well
> established, and quickly relatable, terms from the Internet.
>
> server <-> client
>
> Or the 'agent' terms from email; substitute (T)erminal for (M)ail, for
> example, TUA Terminal User Agent:
>
> MUA: Mail User Agent (client)
> MTA: Mail Transfer Agent (server)
>   Or
> MDA: Mail Distribution Agent
> MSA: Mail Submission Agent

FWIW, "server" + "client" feels too tied to network applications for
my taste (and many applications of pseudoterminals have no relation to
networks). But still, I think it's good to kickk ideas like this
around.

Thanks,

Michael

-- 
Michael Kerrisk
Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/