6 ms·

Branch off of main

41 points by roncohen 5y ago

troon-lover 5y ago
- gmfawcett 5y ago
  https://www.theserverside.com/feature/Why-GitHub-renamed-its-master-branch-to-main https://www.theserverside.com/feature/Why-GitHub-renamed-its...
  - pmarreck 5y ago
    I renamed my master branches "yolo" and never looked back.
- steelstraw 5y ago
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - trackflak 5y ago
    That's probably what makes me uncomfortable with these mandated word changes. I could argue the linguistics, and the racial connotations never occoured to me then and don't convince me now. But what really makes me uncomfortable is the feeling that I'm surrendering part of my soul to some larger conscience that could turn on me at a whim.
- vorpalhex 5y ago
  The same reason you aren't supposed to use the words: + master + slave + blacklist + whitelist + grandfather + brown bag + manpower + hijack + kill The list goes on (and on) and I have not transcribed even a portion of it. https://itconnect.uw.edu/work/inclusive-language-guide/ https://itconnect.uw.edu/work/inclusive-language-guide/ https://blog.ongig.com/writing-job-descriptions/a-list-of-offensive-exclusionary-words-used-in-job-descriptions/ https://blog.ongig.com/writing-job-descriptions/a-list-of-of...
  - moffkalast 5y ago
    > grandfather What do you call your dad's dad then?
    - yepthatsreality 5y ago
      Main
      - itisit 5y ago
        Extant root parent
    - kayodelycaon 5y ago
      Grandfather. If you look at the website, it explains in detail: A “grandfather” clause, “grandfather” policy or “grandfathering” in IT s a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from the new rule are said to have grandfather rights, acquired rights, or to have been grandfathered in. Why it’s problematic: “Grandfathering” or “grandfather clause” was used as a way to exempt some people from a change because of conditions that existed before the change (e.g., we’ve grandfathered some users on an unlimited data plan.”) “Grandfather clause” originated in the American South in the 1890s as a way to defy the 15th Amendment and prevent black Americans from voting.
      - moffkalast 5y ago
        > The cakewalk was a pre-Civil War dance performed by enslaved people, and the winner of which would be given a cake. This is the original source for the phrases “takes the cake” and “cakewalk.” Because of this history, this word and phrase should be avoided. > Brown bags trace back to the “brown paper bag test,” which was traditionally used to judge skin color by certain African-American sororities and fraternities. References to a “brown bag” when we are really referencing a get-together over lunch surfaces an ugly period of American history that can alienate and offend people. > (no can do) What might seem like a folksy, abbreviated version of “I can’t do it” is actually an imitation of Chinese Pidgin English. The phrase dates from the mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth centuries, an era when Western attitudes towards the Chinese were markedly racist. > Using the word “pow wow” is cultural misappropriation, and ultimately racist. > Referring to something as your spirit animal is cultural appropriation. Some of these are pretty wild.
- yurishimo 5y ago
  It's funny because the article doesn't talk about git at all!
thinkingkong 5y ago
Using the tools, trying the workflow, experiencing the friction, and just generally developing empathy for the day to day will make everyone better at their jobs. That includes job shadowing, which this is pretty much a form of. The major caveat is that you cant be part of critical path and its sometimes tricky to write even a great PR and expect honest feedback.
- snide 5y ago
  Author here. I agree with your caveat wholeheartedly. You've expressed it better than my "don't get in the way" comment. Don't take on critical path work is key. By all means fix things on the edges that are not time-critical or would not cause conflict during review.
vorpalhex 5y ago
> The basic thesis is one of dedicated roles, with the manager archetype focusing their time towards enablement, communication, and expectation. No, it's because programming requires a mental model of the software and most managers don't have that. Add in constant interruptions and the inability to focus and you have a recipe for disaster. Would you sometimes take a break from programming to go help accounting do the accounting work? No, no you wouldn't - accounting would smack the tar out of you. Just because you think you can contribute because you used to be able to is the notion that you need to break, and this applies to other fields too. > This starts young with telling kids they can't be good at multiple things. "You need to focus." A lack of focus on a problem space is usually the problem, yes. This isn't because we want people to stay in their lane and want to keep kids from being creative. It's because difficult problems are hard to solve. If you are going to spend hours pulling down code and building it, ask yourself this question: "Is this the best use of my time? Is pulling down source code and waiting for a compiler the best thing I as a manager can be doing?"
- jen20 5y ago
  > It's because difficult problems are hard to solve. Most software development does not involve difficult problems however - other than how to comprehend the stitching together or "complected-libraries-du-jour" via maximal indirection.
  - nerdponx 5y ago
    I know this is a meme (I guess about frontend web dev sometimes?), but I don't think I've ever seen it play out in real life. Almost every program source code that I've read or worked on mostly consists of "data processing" and "control flow", with various kinds of abstractions that depend on the problem, programming language, etc. Even for applications that seem straightforward, writing software well requires quite a bit of mental energy and focus/attention. Especially once you consider future maintainability and interfaces that other devs will use, testing and testability, documentation, readability, et al. Denigrating programmers for using frameworks and libraries (the horror!) is just pointless and arrogant. Sure, most programmers aren't implementing novel algorithms from scratch with manual memory management. But that doesn't mean other problems can't be hard, it just means that the level of abstraction is higher and the programmer is free to use their mental resources to work and reason differently.
kayodelycaon 5y ago
> So, should managers code, design, and in other ways contribute in some way to production code or design? Sure, I don't see any reason they can't. Just understand the boundaries and stay out of other people's way. Has this person been a manager? The amount of time is takes to keep up to date enough to make a net positive contribution is non-trivial. Doing this on top of management responsibilities? Good luck. The communication between a development team and the rest of the company is complicated. Navigating this requires both a skillset completely orthogonal to writing software and a lot of time.
- ebiester 5y ago
  It all depends on how large the team is and the scope of responsibility. I see, in practice, three types of manager roles. The first is the team lead manager. This team has 3-5 people on it, and the tech lead codes small features and pairs with other developers, and has a coaching role. Their people management skills are relatively low weight, and their managers, whether senior managers or directors, are doing the heavy lifting on how to manage career progression and run a department, but they will be intimately involved with the progression of the team's goals. The second is the multi-team or large team manager. This manager has 6-15 reports and does not code or codes sparingly at best. However, they are responsible for low level strategy and tactics. The third is the barely-technical people manager. This person has over 20 reports, and is in a reporting capacity and people managing capacity and the technical leads are delegated to handle strategic and tactical capacity. The manager is responsible for more holistic thinking and supporting the tech leads, Or the organization is light on career development. I have seen all three happen. The key to understanding your responsibilities as a manager is to understand the organizational expectations. When you ask as a manager if you should code, the real question is what are you trading for that?
  - kayodelycaon 5y ago
    Agreed. I'm moving towards a team lead role at some point. I've volunteered in three positions in orgs outside of work. Team lead is about where my skills and interests end.

41 points by roncohen 5y ago

gmfawcett 5y ago
https://www.theserverside.com/feature/Why-GitHub-renamed-its-master-branch-to-main https://www.theserverside.com/feature/Why-GitHub-renamed-its...
- pmarreck 5y ago
  I renamed my master branches "yolo" and never looked back.
steelstraw 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- trackflak 5y ago
  That's probably what makes me uncomfortable with these mandated word changes. I could argue the linguistics, and the racial connotations never occoured to me then and don't convince me now. But what really makes me uncomfortable is the feeling that I'm surrendering part of my soul to some larger conscience that could turn on me at a whim.
vorpalhex 5y ago
The same reason you aren't supposed to use the words: + master + slave + blacklist + whitelist + grandfather + brown bag + manpower + hijack + kill The list goes on (and on) and I have not transcribed even a portion of it. https://itconnect.uw.edu/work/inclusive-language-guide/ https://itconnect.uw.edu/work/inclusive-language-guide/ https://blog.ongig.com/writing-job-descriptions/a-list-of-offensive-exclusionary-words-used-in-job-descriptions/ https://blog.ongig.com/writing-job-descriptions/a-list-of-of...
- moffkalast 5y ago
  > grandfather What do you call your dad's dad then?
  - yepthatsreality 5y ago
    Main
    - itisit 5y ago
      Extant root parent
  - kayodelycaon 5y ago
    Grandfather. If you look at the website, it explains in detail: A “grandfather” clause, “grandfather” policy or “grandfathering” in IT s a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from the new rule are said to have grandfather rights, acquired rights, or to have been grandfathered in. Why it’s problematic: “Grandfathering” or “grandfather clause” was used as a way to exempt some people from a change because of conditions that existed before the change (e.g., we’ve grandfathered some users on an unlimited data plan.”) “Grandfather clause” originated in the American South in the 1890s as a way to defy the 15th Amendment and prevent black Americans from voting.
    - moffkalast 5y ago
      > The cakewalk was a pre-Civil War dance performed by enslaved people, and the winner of which would be given a cake. This is the original source for the phrases “takes the cake” and “cakewalk.” Because of this history, this word and phrase should be avoided. > Brown bags trace back to the “brown paper bag test,” which was traditionally used to judge skin color by certain African-American sororities and fraternities. References to a “brown bag” when we are really referencing a get-together over lunch surfaces an ugly period of American history that can alienate and offend people. > (no can do) What might seem like a folksy, abbreviated version of “I can’t do it” is actually an imitation of Chinese Pidgin English. The phrase dates from the mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth centuries, an era when Western attitudes towards the Chinese were markedly racist. > Using the word “pow wow” is cultural misappropriation, and ultimately racist. > Referring to something as your spirit animal is cultural appropriation. Some of these are pretty wild.
yurishimo 5y ago
It's funny because the article doesn't talk about git at all!

Using the tools, trying the workflow, experiencing the friction, and just generally developing empathy for the day to day will make everyone better at their jobs. That includes job shadowing, which this is pretty much a form of. The major caveat is that you cant be part of critical path and its sometimes tricky to write even a great PR and expect honest feedback.

snide 5y ago
Author here. I agree with your caveat wholeheartedly. You've expressed it better than my "don't get in the way" comment. Don't take on critical path work is key. By all means fix things on the edges that are not time-critical or would not cause conflict during review.

vorpalhex 5y ago

> The basic thesis is one of dedicated roles, with the manager archetype focusing their time towards enablement, communication, and expectation. No, it's because programming requires a mental model of the software and most managers don't have that. Add in constant interruptions and the inability to focus and you have a recipe for disaster. Would you sometimes take a break from programming to go help accounting do the accounting work? No, no you wouldn't - accounting would smack the tar out of you. Just because you think you can contribute because you used to be able to is the notion that you need to break, and this applies to other fields too. > This starts young with telling kids they can't be good at multiple things. "You need to focus." A lack of focus on a problem space is usually the problem, yes. This isn't because we want people to stay in their lane and want to keep kids from being creative. It's because difficult problems are hard to solve. If you are going to spend hours pulling down code and building it, ask yourself this question: "Is this the best use of my time? Is pulling down source code and waiting for a compiler the best thing I as a manager can be doing?"

jen20 5y ago
> It's because difficult problems are hard to solve. Most software development does not involve difficult problems however - other than how to comprehend the stitching together or "complected-libraries-du-jour" via maximal indirection.
- nerdponx 5y ago
  I know this is a meme (I guess about frontend web dev sometimes?), but I don't think I've ever seen it play out in real life. Almost every program source code that I've read or worked on mostly consists of "data processing" and "control flow", with various kinds of abstractions that depend on the problem, programming language, etc. Even for applications that seem straightforward, writing software well requires quite a bit of mental energy and focus/attention. Especially once you consider future maintainability and interfaces that other devs will use, testing and testability, documentation, readability, et al. Denigrating programmers for using frameworks and libraries (the horror!) is just pointless and arrogant. Sure, most programmers aren't implementing novel algorithms from scratch with manual memory management. But that doesn't mean other problems can't be hard, it just means that the level of abstraction is higher and the programmer is free to use their mental resources to work and reason differently.

kayodelycaon 5y ago

> So, should managers code, design, and in other ways contribute in some way to production code or design? Sure, I don't see any reason they can't. Just understand the boundaries and stay out of other people's way. Has this person been a manager? The amount of time is takes to keep up to date enough to make a net positive contribution is non-trivial. Doing this on top of management responsibilities? Good luck. The communication between a development team and the rest of the company is complicated. Navigating this requires both a skillset completely orthogonal to writing software and a lot of time.

ebiester 5y ago
It all depends on how large the team is and the scope of responsibility. I see, in practice, three types of manager roles. The first is the team lead manager. This team has 3-5 people on it, and the tech lead codes small features and pairs with other developers, and has a coaching role. Their people management skills are relatively low weight, and their managers, whether senior managers or directors, are doing the heavy lifting on how to manage career progression and run a department, but they will be intimately involved with the progression of the team's goals. The second is the multi-team or large team manager. This manager has 6-15 reports and does not code or codes sparingly at best. However, they are responsible for low level strategy and tactics. The third is the barely-technical people manager. This person has over 20 reports, and is in a reporting capacity and people managing capacity and the technical leads are delegated to handle strategic and tactical capacity. The manager is responsible for more holistic thinking and supporting the tech leads, Or the organization is light on career development. I have seen all three happen. The key to understanding your responsibilities as a manager is to understand the organizational expectations. When you ask as a manager if you should code, the real question is what are you trading for that?
- kayodelycaon 5y ago
  Agreed. I'm moving towards a team lead role at some point. I've volunteered in three positions in orgs outside of work. Team lead is about where my skills and interests end.