Re: [PATCH v2 0/4] Use singular "they" when appropriate

[Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>]

On 6/15/2021 2:02 AM, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> Or, if we just fix these existing occurrences as a one-off there'll be
>> no existing examples of it in-tree, and as people tend to imitate
>> existing documentation they're unlikely to introduce new
>> occurrences.
> 
> I suspect that may be a bit too optimistic.  It is too easy to
> discuss interaction among users and introduce pronouns to refer to
> them, and when it happens, it is far easier to have a document to
> point at and tell them why we want them to rephrase if not how
> exactly.  For that reason, I'd prefer to have some word about the
> desire to make examples and explanations gender-neutral in the
> guidelines.  The mechanics we recommend to achieve the goal does not
> have to be specified if we want brevity---that can be learned by
> imitating existing practices.

Thanks. This was the whole intention of this series: to land on
a policy that improves our understanding of gendered pronouns
and be able to point to it when the situation arises again, even
if that is a rare occasion.

While my initial recommendation wasn't accepted, I'm glad we are
coming to an agreement.

>> If and when Felipe's <20210611202819.47077-1-felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
>> is applied how small is the diff you'll still have rebased on top of
>> that?
> 
> I just retried a "competing" merge that got ugly ;-)
> 
> Between Derrick's two "singular they" patches (one for comments, the
> other for docs) and Felipe's two patches (the same split), they
> touch identical base text.  Only the way they neuter the description
> is different, and to me the latter feels a bit more ESL friendly.
> 
> So, the main things that are missing from Felipe's version that we
> may want to build on top before the whole discussion can be
> concluded are:
> 
>  - Derrick's "typofix" patch, but if I recall correctly it needed a
>    fix-up in one of its hunks?
> 
>  - Guidelines; you had a more generic readability tips that would
>    (incidentally) result in nudging the writers to be more gender
>    neutral, which I think is going in the right direction, but I do
>    prefer to see an explicit mention of gender-neutrality as one
>    bullet item.

I will send a v3 soon with Felipe's two patches, a fixed typo patch,
and a new set of guidelines.

Thanks,
-Stolee