Less culturally loaded terms for “Master/Slave”“

Question

I'd like to move us away from those terms and would love to hear from others what terms they have come up with. There is "primary/secondary" but it seems long and doesn't type nicely. What ya got?

arh68 · Accepted Answer

Leader/Follower (pietroglyph's is probably best), Cam/Follower, Sender/Receiver, Drive/Pulley (?), Reference/Replica, Model/Instance, Broker/Agent, Supervisor/Worker, maybe even Coordinator/Helper (these are a bit long), Lead/Rhythm, Lead/Understudy, Boss/Worker
Also good but maybe weird: Alpha/Beta, Red/Black (and if we need 3+, I think Hearts/Spades/Clubs[/Diamonds[/Jokers..]] is fine if you write down the object of the game, so to speak)
Slightly humorous but not best: Hivemind/Drone, Hypnotoad/Zombie, Sauron/Saruman, Don/Capo, Drummer/Dancer

itamarst · Answer

Switching away from problematic terminology is also a good opportunity to make it more accurate and specific.
In some situations it's "process A allows writes, process B only allow reads", in which case "writer/reader" maybe?
In other situation it's "process A is in control, but process B will take control if process A fails". In which case "controller/fallback", maybe?

kens · Answer

It depends if you're talking about replicated databases, flip flops, hydraulics, or something else. (I'm currently writing about flip flops, so I'm interested in terminology for that case.)Wikipedia has some suggestions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master/slave_(technology)#Term... Also see the HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17954823

yamrzou · Answer

What exactly is wrong with using master/slave?

madcaptenor · Answer

I have the same question regarding "Scrum Master". Obviously nobody is explicitly calling the team members "slaves" but it's still not a good look.

Jamwinner · Answer

Can you cite any instance of these terms actually being problematic in practice? This is usually a political statement dressed in concern troll clothing.

dekhn · Answer

I tried various alternatives (daimyo/peasant), but after using them for a while I realized they had similar connotations.

jgrahamc · Answer

lord/serf

jascii · Answer

I ended up going with `-prim` and `-sec` which seemed reasonably self-descriptive.

JamesVI · Answer

I had a manager who was big into amateur dramatics so I used Director/Actor.

pietroglyph · Answer

I&rsquo;ve seen leader and follower on some motor controllers that I&rsquo;ve used.

sethammons · Answer

Write (master), wo / replica, reader, ro

AnimalMuppet · Answer

Active/fallback?

rogerkirkness · Answer

Parent and child.

buboard · Answer

government/citizen

sesuximo · Answer

worker/manager?

jimmyvalmer · Answer

zed/gimp

ressetera · Answer

a/b