I suppose it’s a sign of the times - how things move forward, and how we learn from them - wherever you are in the world.
I’m guilty of having used Ford Tranny in the south of England, as it was widely used as a shortened term for the Ford Transit van. There’s obviously no intention to use it as a slur as it’s literally just a sawn-off model name, but I can see the hurt it would cause to someone from the trans community.
Same in Scotland, “I heard it on the tranny” or “get the tranny on” is simply an expression for a radio receiver, short for the transistor radio. I absolutely understand how it could ruin someone’s day when used after being challenged however.
Context matters, there’s a big difference between pointing at my car and saying ‘I fucked my trans.’ and pointing at my (hypothetical) partner and saying ‘I fucked my trans.’. Two completely different meanings.
I mean it’s unconfortable to hear it but it’s also an entirely different term
Like if you say your tranny failed and you point at your broken down vehicle, it’ll sound pretty awkward to a lot of folks these days, but unless they don’t know it’s used unrelatedly to refer to a transmission I can’t imagine many folks are likely to think you’re trying to describe them as a lesser, invalid human on the basis of how they relate to gender.
I’d find it a bit awkward or uncomfortable but I certainly wouldn’t take offense by it.
I don’t think anyone who’s used it to refer to like a transmission or transceiver or transit van is a bad person or anything. There’s a lot of room for misunderstanding but part of communication is knowing your audience. Honestly that’s probably the biggest reason I think it’s a good thing it’s falling out of favour- there’s less room for misunderstanding
reminds me of the debate in programming about the central branch yor all changes in git being called master. people wanted the terminology changed because they thought it was about slavery, like master/slave hardware devices. but it’s not; it’s your known-good version, like a mastered mix of a music track. that word has a different root and was never connected to slavery.
…but if you have to explain that every time, then changing it may be for the better. not because the people using it are bad, but because it makes new folks less likely to join. so the new default is main.
My issue with the ‘master’ debate is that the overwhelming number of people I saw fighting against its usage had only “added inclusive language to readme/CoC” as their GitHub history. At that point you’re not a programmer, you’re an idealogue injecting your preconceptions into a world that you don’t understand. Frankly we need less intervention and presumption from this single viewpoint, the western white imperialist, and more people asking questions as their default mode of interacting with things they don’t understand.
Tangentially related is whitelist/blacklist. Nowadays its more common to hear allowlist/denylist or blocklist. Though I’m moderately sure the dated term is coded in something racist, unlike your example.
Colour based terms are super cultural too from what I’ve been told, stuff like red being bad and green being good isn’t universal so imo it’s not a bad idea to use more explicit terminology.
Beyond that, if you go into reporting and the like, red/green colour coding for indicators isn’t accessible (colour blindness isn’t uncommon, last job I had a few colleagues with red/green and one with blue/yellow, I was told that making them very distinct shades helps a lot), people also print stuff out on monochrome printers (there’s old data viz wisdom that suggested designing for this) so I prefered symbols when I did more of that work, still suggest it when I get asked to review things.
How many people had to be explained what a master copy is? Do these same people need to be explained what a master degree is?
As for the ‘master and slave’ terminology, yeah it should go away, if anything because it was rarely even accurate. For example, the IDE interface refered the primary drive as master and the secondary as the slave. But the primary drive has absolutely no control of over the secondary. It just defines who gets the bus id of 0 and 1…
The change still annoys me at times as the default to git is still master. Its the hosted git (Github, Gitlab, etc) repos that default to main. And on occasion I get reminded this when I push a local initialized repo to them…
it happens enough that it became worth it to go with it. people new to any field will come into it with only the “common” understanding of words, and it’s such a small thing.
Imagine going to a mechanic because the engine is acting up and getting hit with “Your ignition timing is too retarded, it’s killing the engine” without the necessary context.
(to advance/retard ignition is the correct terminology for setting the timing ahead/behind top dead center; also used in aviation for moving the throttle levers towards a higher/lower power setting)
I suppose it’s a sign of the times - how things move forward, and how we learn from them - wherever you are in the world.
I’m guilty of having used Ford Tranny in the south of England, as it was widely used as a shortened term for the Ford Transit van. There’s obviously no intention to use it as a slur as it’s literally just a sawn-off model name, but I can see the hurt it would cause to someone from the trans community.
Same in Scotland, “I heard it on the tranny” or “get the tranny on” is simply an expression for a radio receiver, short for the transistor radio. I absolutely understand how it could ruin someone’s day when used after being challenged however.
We live and learn.
Geography matters; smoking a fag in the UK and Ireland is quite normal, but in the US that’d be a hate crime!
Context matters, there’s a big difference between pointing at my car and saying ‘I fucked my trans.’ and pointing at my (hypothetical) partner and saying ‘I fucked my trans.’. Two completely different meanings.
I mean it’s unconfortable to hear it but it’s also an entirely different term
Like if you say your tranny failed and you point at your broken down vehicle, it’ll sound pretty awkward to a lot of folks these days, but unless they don’t know it’s used unrelatedly to refer to a transmission I can’t imagine many folks are likely to think you’re trying to describe them as a lesser, invalid human on the basis of how they relate to gender.
I’d find it a bit awkward or uncomfortable but I certainly wouldn’t take offense by it.
I don’t think anyone who’s used it to refer to like a transmission or transceiver or transit van is a bad person or anything. There’s a lot of room for misunderstanding but part of communication is knowing your audience. Honestly that’s probably the biggest reason I think it’s a good thing it’s falling out of favour- there’s less room for misunderstanding
reminds me of the debate in programming about the central branch yor all changes in git being called
master. people wanted the terminology changed because they thought it was about slavery, like master/slave hardware devices. but it’s not; it’s your known-good version, like a mastered mix of a music track. that word has a different root and was never connected to slavery.…but if you have to explain that every time, then changing it may be for the better. not because the people using it are bad, but because it makes new folks less likely to join. so the new default is
main.My issue with the ‘master’ debate is that the overwhelming number of people I saw fighting against its usage had only “added inclusive language to readme/CoC” as their GitHub history. At that point you’re not a programmer, you’re an idealogue injecting your preconceptions into a world that you don’t understand. Frankly we need less intervention and presumption from this single viewpoint, the western white imperialist, and more people asking questions as their default mode of interacting with things they don’t understand.
yeah that was an issue.
Tangentially related is whitelist/blacklist. Nowadays its more common to hear allowlist/denylist or blocklist. Though I’m moderately sure the dated term is coded in something racist, unlike your example.
Colour based terms are super cultural too from what I’ve been told, stuff like red being bad and green being good isn’t universal so imo it’s not a bad idea to use more explicit terminology.
Beyond that, if you go into reporting and the like, red/green colour coding for indicators isn’t accessible (colour blindness isn’t uncommon, last job I had a few colleagues with red/green and one with blue/yellow, I was told that making them very distinct shades helps a lot), people also print stuff out on monochrome printers (there’s old data viz wisdom that suggested designing for this) so I prefered symbols when I did more of that work, still suggest it when I get asked to review things.
How many people had to be explained what a master copy is? Do these same people need to be explained what a master degree is?
As for the ‘master and slave’ terminology, yeah it should go away, if anything because it was rarely even accurate. For example, the IDE interface refered the primary drive as master and the secondary as the slave. But the primary drive has absolutely no control of over the secondary. It just defines who gets the bus id of 0 and 1…
At some point, if enough people are annoyed and the alternative is just as valid, the annoyance of getting used to the new term is worthwhile.
I was annoyed by the change like 5ish years ago, when the movement started, but now idc anymore.
The change still annoys me at times as the default to git is still master. Its the hosted git (Github, Gitlab, etc) repos that default to main. And on occasion I get reminded this when I push a local initialized repo to them…
That’s configurable since Git 2.28. You can change
init.defaultBranchto main or trunk or whatever you want.it happens enough that it became worth it to go with it. people new to any field will come into it with only the “common” understanding of words, and it’s such a small thing.
honestly even without it being the same as a slur it would only sound right coming from an aussie, otherwise it doesn’t feel like a natural shortening
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Imagine going to a mechanic because the engine is acting up and getting hit with “Your ignition timing is too retarded, it’s killing the engine” without the necessary context.
(to advance/retard ignition is the correct terminology for setting the timing ahead/behind top dead center; also used in aviation for moving the throttle levers towards a higher/lower power setting)
It’s weird how anglophones shorten names with the suffix -ny
I’m in the south of England. I’ve never heard a Transit being called a Tranny or Trans. I’m not in the business of using them though.
Midlands person here. I can confirm that tranny was/is short for the transit van.
And it was also short for transvestite.
We never used it to mean a transmission, we have always called them gearboxes.