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

On 2021-06-16 at 19:54:20, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:

The references to "gendered prounouns" etc. are gone, perhaps there's a
good reason to re-include them, but the point of "isn't that issue
solved by recommending an orthagonal approach?" is one of the many
things Stolee hasn't been addressing in the threads related to this
series.

I think I've addressed this.  Sometimes you can avoid referring to
people and therefore avoiding pronouns, and sometimes the prose reads
better if you talk about the user or actor.  Also, sometimes you need to
discuss a matter at length and using variety in your language is
desirable, so you may want to, for example, avoid continually using the
passive voice to discuss the topic.

I don't think it's fair to just say "don't refer to the user or other
humans if you'd need to use third-person pronouns" because I don't think
that's applicable in all cases.  I, for one, don't intend to write my
commit messages in that way because I think it will make them
substantially worse.  For example, I often discuss the behavior or
expectations of users when writing FAQ entries or other documentation
and sometimes we'll need to use pronouns.

I agree that in many cases we can effectively rephrase to avoid needing
to do this, but if we acknowledge that sometimes we will need to write
using third-person personal pronouns in some cases, it's worth
documenting what those should be.
-- 
brian m. carlson (he/him or they/them)
Toronto, Ontario, CA