From: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
To: "Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason" <avarab@gmail.com>,
"Felipe Contreras" <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Cc: git@vger.kernel.org, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>,
Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>, Jeff King <peff@peff.net>,
Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@gmail.com>,
Robert Karszniewicz <avoidr@posteo.de>,
Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@google.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/6] doc: replace "alice" and "bob" examples
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2021 15:56:38 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <60ca6586607f5_602720852@natae.notmuch> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <871r93ym8q.fsf@evledraar.gmail.com>
Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jun 15 2021, Felipe Contreras wrote:
>
> > Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:
> >> I suggested in [1] that the "alice" and "bob" examples in our
> >> documentation would be better written without a reference to such
> >> fictional characters, for reasons that have nothing to do with trying
> >> to bend over backwards to avoid any reference to people's gender. It
> >> just makes for better documentation.
> >
> > I'm fond of Alice and Bob, and I'm saddened they are the latest casualty
> > of the culture war, but if we are avoiding gender of examples, it makes
> > sense to let them go.
> >
> > However, I want to defend this usage a little.
> >
> > 1. Alice and Bob are familiar, so it requires less cogntive load from
> > the user.
> > 2. Alice and Bob promote the usage of git as a distributed VCS, where
> > unlike centralized VCS, you directly use the repositories of your
> > colleagues.
> > 3. They provide some relief to an otherwise sterile landscape.
> >
> > I don't think these changes make for a necessarily better documentation,
> > just a more sterile one.
>
> Fair enough, for what it's worth I wouldn't recommend against using
> these names in general, I would think you'd actively seek out those
> actors in e.g. cryptography documentation.
I have not read cryptography documentation, so for me Alice and Bob are
simply two illustrative colleagues.
> And as argued in 1/6 for those users who /are/ aware of "Alice and Bob"
> it's needless distraction. Maybe it's just me, but whenever I read
> references to them I keep waiting for the cryptography angle to be
> introduced. None of the uses in our documentation reflect that canonical
> usage.
It's probably not just you, but the vast majority of readers are
likely not aware of any cryptographic reference.
> There's also just weird things in our documentation fixed by this
> series, such as referring to a random file tracked by git as "bob"
> instead of the more obvious "file.txt".
OK, _that_ I agree it's unequivocally an improvement.
Cheers.
--
Felipe Contreras
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2021-06-16 20:56 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 24+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2021-06-15 16:17 [PATCH 0/6] doc: replace "alice" and "bob" examples Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2021-06-15 16:17 ` [PATCH 1/6] gittutorial doc: replace "alice" and "bob" with "you" and "www-data" Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2021-06-16 3:43 ` Bagas Sanjaya
2021-06-16 4:50 ` Junio C Hamano
2021-06-16 21:04 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-06-17 20:38 ` Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2021-06-15 16:17 ` [PATCH 2/6] gitcvs-migration " Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2021-06-16 4:02 ` Bagas Sanjaya
2021-06-15 16:18 ` [PATCH 3/6] daemon doc + code comments: reword "alice" example Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2021-06-15 16:18 ` [PATCH 4/6] fast-import doc: change "bob" in an example to "file.txt" Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2021-06-15 16:18 ` [PATCH 5/6] doc: replace "alice" and "bob" with "jdoe" and "msmith" Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2021-06-15 16:18 ` [PATCH 6/6] pack-protocol doc: use "www-data" in place of "alice" Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2021-06-15 16:46 ` [PATCH 0/6] doc: replace "alice" and "bob" examples Robert P. J. Day
2021-06-15 18:45 ` Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2021-06-15 16:54 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-06-15 19:09 ` Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2021-06-16 20:56 ` Felipe Contreras [this message]
2021-06-17 15:48 ` Phillip Susi
2021-06-17 20:51 ` Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2021-06-16 1:52 ` Junio C Hamano
2021-06-16 9:30 ` Robert P. J. Day
2021-06-16 12:00 ` Jeff King
2021-06-16 20:59 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-06-16 21:02 ` Randall S. Becker
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