Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 7 Jul 2020 13:56:30 -0700 | From | Kees Cook <> | Subject | Re: [Ksummit-discuss] [Tech-board-discuss] [PATCH] CodingStyle: Inclusive Terminology |
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On Tue, Jul 07, 2020 at 05:45:42PM +0300, Mike Rapoport wrote: > On Tue, Jul 07, 2020 at 09:41:47AM -0400, Steven Rostedt wrote: > > On Tue, 7 Jul 2020 01:54:23 -0700 > > Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> wrote: > > > > > "I will whitelist the syscall" -- sounds correct to me (same for > > > "it is whitelisted" or "it is in whitelisting mode"). > > > > > > "I will allow-list the syscall" -- sounds wrong to me (same for > > > "it is allow-listed" or "it is in allow-listing mode"). > > > > That's because we can't just make "allow-list" a drop in replacement > > for "whitelist" as I too (native English speaker) find it awkward. But > > then we don't need to make it a drop in replacement. > > > > "I will whitelist the syscall" will become "I will add the syscall to > > the allow-list", which sounds perfectly fine, and even better than > > saying "I will add the syscall to the whitelist". > > I will allow the syscall?
Kind of, but it's this change to verb-noun from adj-noun that confuses the resulting language: the verb form of the verb-noun doesn't distinguish between its stand-alone action ("allowed") or its combined action ("allow-list-ed") in the same way that the verb form of the adj-noun does (the verbed adj-noun is its own word). To me to looks like "allowed" and "whitelisted" mean distinct things (as in, a single allowance vs being added to the persistent list of allowances).
So "I will allow this system call once" and "I will allow all instances of this syscall", or we just get used to using the verb-noun as a whole, and embrace "I allowlisted the syscall."
But yes, as I and others come back to: it's fine. We'll just use different surrounding constructs to avoid confusion. But it is an odd characteristic of English's grammar (or lack of appropriately descriptive adjectives) to not have a drop-in replacement. (Which is where I think the master/slave replacements fair far better -- the whitelist replacement is more complex, but it's mostly just English glitchiness.)
-- Kees Cook
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