RFC: Rename Share to Sync

active/0000-share-to-threadsafe.md

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+- Start Date: 2014-06-15
+- RFC PR #: (leave this empty)
+- Rust Issue #: (leave this empty)
+
+# Summary
+
+Rename the `Share` trait to `Sync`
+
+# Motivation
+
+With interior mutability, the name "immutable pointer" for a value of type `&T`
+is not quite accurate. Instead, the term "shared reference" is becoming popular
+to reference values of type `&T`. The usage of the term "shared" is in conflict
+with the `Share` trait, which is intended for types which can be safely shared
+concurrently with a shared reference.
+
+# Detailed design
+
+Rename the `Share` trait in `std::kinds` to `Sync`. Documentation would
+refer to `&T` as a shared reference and the notion of "shared" would simply mean
+"many references" while `Sync` implies that it is safe to share among many
+threads.
+
+# Drawbacks
+
+The name `Sync` may invoke conceptions of "synchronized" from languages such as
+Java where locks are used, rather than meaning "safe to access in a shared
+fashion across tasks".
+
+# Alternatives
+
+As any bikeshed, there are a number of other names which could be possible for
+this trait:
+
+* `Concurrent`
+* `Synchronized`
+* `Threadsafe`
+* `Parallel`
+* `Threaded`
+* `Atomic`
+* `DataRaceFree`
+* `ConcurrentlySharable`
+
+# Unresolved questions
+
+None.