Computer terminology and political correctness

From: Vintage Computer Festival <vcf_at_siconic.com>
Date: Tue Nov 25 18:31:31 2003

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003, Tony Duell wrote:

> > When I was doing contract work at Motown Studios - Berry Gordy forbid the
> > use of those terms in relation to SMPTE devices... we had to use 'talker'
> > and 'listener' (like GPIB).
>
> But that means something totally different!
>
> The 'talker' is the device that outputs data -- the 'writer'
> The 'listener' is the device that inputs data -- the 'reader'
>
> The 'master' is the device that controls the transaction (outputs
> addresses, etc)
>
> The 'slave' is the device controlled by the master.
>
> On many buess (although not all), in any transaction there will be a
> master and a slave. There will also be a talker and a listener. But
> whether the master is the talker or the listener depends on which way
> data is to flow.

I nominate "Pimp" and "Bitch" as replacement terminology. It's certainly
something that youngsters todays can relate to. Maybe it'll get them more
interested in hardware.

-- 
Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Tue Nov 25 2003 - 18:31:31 GMT

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