[R] [SPAM] Re: The "--slave" option

[Richard O'Keefe]

Nobody would use "stentorian" as an alternative to "verbose" because they
mean very different things.
  "verbose" means "using many words"
  "stentorian" means "talking very loudly, like Stentor, whose voice was as
powerful
                      as fifty voices of other men".
You can be verbose while talking in a whisper.
You can be stentorian while being laconic.

If you don't like the word "slave", the option "--silent" is there for you
to use.

The "master-slave" design pattern is in hundreds of books (although I note
that
Erlang uses different terminology).  Your car has a master hydraulic
cylinder and
slave cylinders.  The analogy is pervasive in technology.  See a very short
list
at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master/slave_(technology)
which ends with "Global Language Monitor
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Language_Monitor> found the term
"master/slave" to be the most
egregious example of political correctness
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_correctness> in 2004, and named it
the most politically
incorrect term of that year."

The one thing "slave" does not mean in technology is any kind of human
being.

On Thu, 19 Sep 2019 at 21:51, Benjamin Lang <langbnj using gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Richard,
>
> Thank you, that’s interesting. There is also something called an
> “etymological fallacy”. I think current usage is more useful here than the
> “science of truth”, i.e. the Ancient Greek idea that the (sometimes
> inferred) derivation of a word allows us to grasp “the truth of it”.
>
> In current usage, a “server” is someone who brings you dishes in a
> restaurant. A “client” is a customer. A “slave” is a human being forced to
> perform work under duress and considered nothing more than a machine, say a
> dishwasher or a tractor. And in some regions, this echoes on and is
> offensive and hurtful to some.
>
> A new user, wanting to reduce output from R, would probably reach for “-q”
> or “—quiet”. This makes sense in the same way that “—stentorian” is not a
> good alternative to “—verbose”.
>
> Best,
> Ben
>
> On 19 Sep 2019, at 10:55, Richard O'Keefe <raoknz using gmail.com> wrote:
>
> One of my grandfathers was from Croatia.  Guess what the word "slave" is
> derived
> from?  That's right, Slavs.  This goes back to the 9th century.  And then
> of course
> my grandfather's people were enslaved by the Ottoman empire, which was
> only defeated
> a little over a hundred years ago.  My other grandfather was from the
> British isles,
> where to this day followers of the same prophet are enslaving people like
> me
> (except for being female).  So I'm sorry, but I'm not impressed.
>
> How many computers are "servers"?  There's that whole client-server thing.
> Guess what "server" comes from?  That's right, the Latin word "servus",
> which
> means guess what?  You got it again: "slave".  Are we to abolish the word
> "server"?  What about the word "client"?  Ah, that's part of the
> client-patron
> system from Rome, so what about the patriarchy, eh?
>
> We are dealing with something called "the genetic fallacy".
> "The genetic *fallacy* (also known as the *fallacy of origins* ...)
>  is a *fallacy* of irrelevance that is based solely on someone's
>  or something's history, *origin*, or source rather than its
>  current meaning or context."  (Wikipedia.)
>
> Context matters.
>
>
>
> On Thu, 19 Sep 2019 at 17:10, Abby Spurdle <spurdle.a using gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> > Personally I much prefer backwards compatibility to political
>> correctness.
>>
>> I agree with Rolf, here.
>> And as someone that's planning to write a Linux Terminal Emulator, in
>> the medium-term future, I *strongly* defend this approach.
>>
>> And to the original poster.
>> Haven't you seen The Matrix?
>> (Second best movie ever, after the Shawshank Redemption).
>>
>> I would prefer the technology to be my slave, than I be a
>> prisoner/slave to the technology.
>>
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>

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