Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] CodingGuidelines: recommend singular they

From: Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@gmail.com>
To: "Junio C Hamano" <gitster@pobox.com>,
	"Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason" <avarab@gmail.com>
Cc: Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>,
	git@vger.kernel.org, sandals@crustytoothpaste.net,
	stolee@gmail.com, jrnieder@gmail.com, emilyshaffer@google.com,
	Andrei Rybak <rybak.a.v@gmail.com>,
	Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>,
	Robert Karszniewicz <avoidr@posteo.de>, Jeff King <peff@peff.net>,
	"Kerry, Richard" <richard.kerry@atos.net>,
	Phillip Susi <phill@thesusis.net>,
	Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de>,
	Derrick Stolee <derrickstolee@github.com>,
	Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] CodingGuidelines: recommend singular they
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2021 16:26:38 +0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <ebb018a4-5d97-6cd9-9d9f-92095f1cf44d@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <xmqqbl86qtyf.fsf@gitster.g>

On 16/06/21 12.06, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> +  - If you still need to refer to an example person that is
> +    third-person singular, you may resort to "singular they" to avoid
> +    "he/she/him/her", e.g.
> +
> +      A contributor asks their upstream to pull from them.
> + > +    Note that this sounds ungrammatical and unnatural to those who
> +    learned English as a second language in some parts of the world.
>   

I'm also confused and found that using singular they may sound odd. So 
IMO either avoid referring to third-person singular (gendered pronouns) 
or write using plural actors. In the case above it should be 
`Contributors ask their upstream to pull from them, potentially with 
reviews`.

A prime example of rewriting using plural actors is in "doc: avoid using 
the gender of other people" patch [1], which said the diff:

> diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> index 55287d72e0..3e215f4d80 100644
> --- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> +++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> @@ -373,9 +373,8 @@ If you like, you can put extra tags at the end:
>  . `Acked-by:` says that the person who is more familiar with the area
>    the patch attempts to modify liked the patch.
>  . `Reviewed-by:`, unlike the other tags, can only be offered by the
> -  reviewer and means that she is completely satisfied that the patch
> -  is ready for application.  It is usually offered only after a
> -  detailed review.
> +  reviewers themselves when they are completely satisfied with the
> +  patch after a detailed analysis.
>  . `Tested-by:` is used to indicate that the person applied the patch
>    and found it to have the desired effect.

I'm OK with using they in plural context, but not as singular they.

[1]: 
https://lore.kernel.org/git/20210611202819.47077-2-felipe.contreras@gmail.com/

-- 
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