undefined | Better HN

0 pointsaugusto-moura1mo ago0 comments

Renaming things to better names happens all the time, selectively removing something is much worse. Especially for a reference book like Gray's Anatomy

0 comments

austin-cheney1mo ago

The severity of harm is highly subjective, though I do agree with you about the harm. The more important thing is the intent, which completely underscores that severity.

tbossanova1mo ago

Main is also an easier name for beginners. I’m old school and always got the comparison of master branch to master tapes and such things, but people new to this stuff wouldn’t necessarily have the same intuition about the name. Main is just clearer (for now). Similar to blacklist/whitelist. I had no context for either of those and it took me soooooo long to remember what they meant. Allowlist/denylist is just so much clearer. Any reduction in harm, however tiny, is a nice bonus to just making things clearer for more people

bigstrat20031mo ago

No, blacklist and whitelist are far superior because blacklist is a normal English word. It isn't even a term of art, programmers just adopted a word that already existed in the English language (and used whitelist by way of analogy). The argument that the new terms are better holds no water whatsoever. The old terms were superior.

Jarwain1mo ago

How is "allowlist" or "denylist" not more clear to, say, someone for whom English is a second language?

Sure blacklist was already an English word, but it's not necessarily _common_, and the distinction between blacklist and whitelist is kinda arbitrary. If you'd like to explain Why the word means what it does I'd love to hear it

Allowlist and denylist are clearer, in that the meaning is in more clear alignment with the words it's made up of.

The old terms just make more sense to those who are old enough to be used to it.

4 more replies

lelanthran1mo ago

Dunno about whitelist, but blacklist had the same meaning for hundreds of years.

ciupicri1mo ago

This master tape thing didn't even cross my mind. subversion used trunk. git used master which sounded way better for me. End of story. They're just words, non-native words for me.

As for whitelist and blacklist, I don't remember having any difficulties with them. Maybe on the first encounter, but that's it.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse