Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] CodingGuidelines: recommend singular they
From: Bagas Sanjaya <hidden>
Date: 2021-06-16 09:26:48
Possibly related (same subject, not in this thread)
- 2021-06-29 · Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] CodingGuidelines: recommend singular they · Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <hidden>
- 2021-06-29 · Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] CodingGuidelines: recommend singular they · Derrick Stolee <hidden>
- 2021-06-29 · Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] CodingGuidelines: recommend singular they · Felipe Contreras <hidden>
- 2021-06-28 · Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] CodingGuidelines: recommend singular they · Junio C Hamano <hidden>
- 2021-06-19 · Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] CodingGuidelines: recommend singular they · Junio C Hamano <hidden>
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:
quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
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/ (local) -- An old man doll... just what I always wanted! - Clara