On Gender in the English Language (theoretically)

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by kriesel

Any would be code author or maintainer can choose how to spend his time, what his personal priorities are, and what to tackle.

Please don't be sexist.

This sentence could be better written as

...can choose how to spend their time, what their personal priorities are, and what to tackle.

Sorry for being a prick, but sometimes gender matters, even with language....

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by chalsall

Please don't be sexist.

This sentence could be better written as

Sorry for being a prick, but sometimes gender matters, even with language....

Tabulate the posters on this thread by gender, and get back to me. The list of code authors I've made is 100% male. The list of names attached to mersenne primes discoveries contains one female, approximately 50 years ago, teaming with her boyfriend until they split and he found another prime. It's not sexism, it's accuracy.

One of the engineers hired to replace me after I retired is named Barb. I recommended her, based on technical competence and healthy productive personality traits.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by kriesel

Tabulate the posters on this thread by gender, and get back to me. The list of code authors I've made is 100% male. The list of names attached to mersenne primes discoveries contains one female, approximately 50 years ago, teaming with her boyfriend until they split.

Tabulate the number of females to males in the humans set.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by kriesel

The list of code authors I've made is 100% male.

Just to drive home my point, my suggested language change wouldn't take away from any of the males.

[Dubslow]

Although I agree with the principle, why on earth do you choose this thread and this particular time to wage this particular battle? Surely there are several dozen such instances of generic he on this website alone, per day, so... why the CUDALucas thread?

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Dubslow

Although I agree with the principle, why on earth do you choose this thread and this particular time to wage this particular battle?

To whom are you speaking?

[Dubslow]

Originally Posted by chalsall

To whom are you speaking?

To you.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Dubslow

Surely there are several...

Please don't call me Shirley...

Sorry... Some don't get my humour.

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by Dubslow

Although I agree with the principle, why on earth do you choose this thread and this particular time to wage this particular battle? Surely there are several dozen such instances of generic he on this website alone, per day, so... why the CUDALucas thread?

Perhaps he's/she's/it's having a slow day and looking to annoy or attack someone for some odd form of gratification.

"Sorry for being a prick" Probably not; probably intentional. We've seen that occur before.

I've heard it's behavior that resurfaces regularly and sometimes gets him/her/it banned for a while. This is likely not the employer's preference for expenditure of paid time and effort. It's a peculiar allocation of time, to critique the writing of someone who's won prizes for writing, and having nothing to do with what the employer is paying the employee for. Meanwhile, sources like the usage note of http://www.dictionary.com/browse/his support my usage (as well as alternate approaches in service of inclusiveness which tend to be clumsy, wordy, and disruptive to flow of the sentence by comparison and can be sometimes inaccurate).

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Dubslow

To you.

OK. While implicit, it wasn't explicit.

A thing you might want to consider in the future is quoting a bit of language of the person you intended to converse with.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by kriesel

Probably not; probably intentional. We've seen that occur before.

You are correct.

I like to push the envelope. And see what can be achieved.

Often lots.