Apple updates coding terminology to remove non-inclusive language

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All of Apple's big announcements from WWDC 2020!
All of Apple's big announcements from WWDC 2020! (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Apple is updating its coding terminology.
  • The updates will remove or replace non-inclusive language.
  • It will also deprecate developer APIs with exclusionary terms.

In a news release on the Apple Developer website tonight, Apple has announced that it is updating its coding terminology. The company says that the updates are part of an effort to "remove and replace non-inclusive language across our developer ecosystem, including within Xcode, platform APIs, documentation, and open source projects."

At Apple, we're working to remove and replace non-inclusive language across our developer ecosystem, including within Xcode, platform APIs, documentation, and open source projects. These changes began on June 22 with the beta software and developer documentation released at WWDC20 moving to terms such as allow list and deny list, and main as the default SCM branch in Xcode 12. An updated Apple Style Guide reflects these and other changes.

Apple also warns that developer APIs that still include exclusionary terms will be deprecated as the company releases replacements. The company says that it will provide warnings to developers so that they can update to the new APIs.

Developer APIs with exclusionary terms will be deprecated as we introduce replacements across internal codebases, public APIs, and open source projects, such as WebKit and Swift. We encourage you to closely monitor deprecation warnings across your codebases and to proactively move to the latest APIs available in the platform SDKs.

The company has updated the Apple Style Guide to reflect these and other changes.

Joe Wituschek
Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.