Re: [PATCH 00/12] Bluetooth: use inclusive language

[Emil Lenngren]

Hi Archie,

Den tis 25 maj 2021 kl 12:46 skrev Archie Pusaka <apusaka@xxxxxxxxxx>:
>
> From: Archie Pusaka <apusaka@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi linux-bluetooth maintainers,
>
> This series contains inclusive language patches, to promote usage of
> central, peripheral, reject list, and accept list. I tried to divide
> the change to several smaller patches to ease downstreamers to make
> gradual change.
>
> There are still three occurences in debugfs (patch 09/12) in which the
> original less inclusive terms is still left as-is since it is a
> file name, and I afraid replacing them will cause instability to
> other systems depending on that file name.
>
>
> Archie Pusaka (12):
>   Bluetooth: use inclusive language in HCI role
>   Bluetooth: use inclusive language in hci_core.h
>   Bluetooth: use inclusive language to describe CPB
>   Bluetooth: use inclusive language in HCI LE features
>   Bluetooth: use inclusive language in L2CAP
>   Bluetooth: use inclusive language in RFCOMM
>   Bluetooth: use inclusive language when tracking connections
>   Bluetooth: use inclusive language in SMP
>   Bluetooth: use inclusive language in debugfs
>   Bluetooth: use inclusive language when filtering devices out
>   Bluetooth: use inclusive language when filtering devices in
>   Bluetooth: use inclusive language in comments
>
>  include/net/bluetooth/hci.h      |  98 +++++++++++++-------------
>  include/net/bluetooth/hci_core.h |  22 +++---
>  include/net/bluetooth/l2cap.h    |   2 +-
>  include/net/bluetooth/mgmt.h     |   2 +-
>  include/net/bluetooth/rfcomm.h   |   2 +-
>  net/bluetooth/amp.c              |   2 +-
>  net/bluetooth/hci_conn.c         |  32 ++++-----
>  net/bluetooth/hci_core.c         |  46 ++++++-------
>  net/bluetooth/hci_debugfs.c      |  20 +++---
>  net/bluetooth/hci_event.c        | 114 +++++++++++++++----------------
>  net/bluetooth/hci_request.c      | 106 ++++++++++++++--------------
>  net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c         |  12 ++--
>  net/bluetooth/hidp/core.c        |   2 +-
>  net/bluetooth/l2cap_core.c       |  16 ++---
>  net/bluetooth/l2cap_sock.c       |   4 +-
>  net/bluetooth/mgmt.c             |  36 +++++-----
>  net/bluetooth/rfcomm/sock.c      |   4 +-
>  net/bluetooth/smp.c              |  86 +++++++++++------------
>  net/bluetooth/smp.h              |   6 +-
>  19 files changed, 309 insertions(+), 303 deletions(-)
>
> --
> 2.31.1.818.g46aad6cb9e-goog
>

Interesting move and good initiative!

In my opinion however, shouldn't we wait until Bluetooth SIG changes
the naming in the specification itself first (or rather push them to
make the changes in the first place)? If they are about to change
names, it would be good to make sure we end up with the same word
choices so that we don't call one thing "le peripheral initiated
feature exchange" while the standard calls it "le follower initiated
feature exchange" or similar. Using different terminology than what's
specified by the standard could easily end up in confusion I guess,
and even more if different stacks invented their own alternative
terminology.

In any case, I'm for example not sure if central/peripheral are the
best words to use, since those are tied to a specific higher level
profile (Generic Access Profile) and those words are not mentioned at
all in the spec outside that context. The SMP chapter for example uses
the terminology "initiator" and "responder", so maybe those are better
word choices, at least in SMP.

/Emil