Re: Master/Slave

Subject: Re: Master/Slave
From: "Huber, Mike" <mrhuber -at- SOFTWARE -dot- ROCKWELL -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 16:29:11 -0500

When an analogy is likely to distract the reader from the topic at hand,
it is a good idea to investigate other possible analogies.

The terms "slave" and "master" carry significant emotional baggage for
some readers. I consider them "expensive." Each word I use costs me
reader attention, some words cost more than others. Usualy, I think of
the cost of a word in terms of length and familiarity. But emotional
content is also a factor.

I'm not about to try to change the terminology of an industry - that
would be even more expensive.

Mike Huber
mike -dot- huber -at- software -dot- rockwell -dot- com

>-----Original Message-----
>From: David Orr [SMTP:whitears -at- interaccess -dot- com]
>
>Maybe I'm just dense. Can someone explain why slave/master analogies are
>per se insensitive?
>

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