Hello automakers. For a better understanding of this answer, please refer to the thread <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-autoconf/2010-06/msg00004.html> on the bug-autoconf mailing list. Thanks.
At Friday 04 June 2010, Christina Gratorp <christina.grat...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi! > > I have a suggestion that would make a difference when visiting your > otherwise eminent website: > http://sources.redhat.com/automake/automake.html#Introduction. The > sentence "The developer expresses the recipe to build *his* > package in a Makefile" must be wrong since I'm a woman and a user > and have packages I want to build and those packages are mine, i.e > *hers* would be correct in this case. (I know that his could be > considered neutral but really, it doesn't feel that way.) > > Suggestion: change the sentence to "The developer expresses the > recipe to build *his/hers* package in a Makefile" FWIW: this seem unnecessary convoluted to me, but it's not a big deal after all (even if it makes me cringe, sorta); on the other hand... > or "The developer expresses the recipe to build *the* package in a > Makefile" ... changing to "the" loses the notion of ownership; and as there is more than one package with mention in the sentence (which package: the developer's, or Automake?), I feel that losing the possessive pronoun would be a step backwards -- and using "the developer's" feels redundant. [quoted from observations by Eric Blake, with whom I agree] > or "The developer expresses the recipe to build *their* package > in a Makefile" .. and please, *please*, at least don't use this last formulation, as it might be really confusing (and might seem downright uncorrect, even if technically it's not) for non-native speakers not accustomed with this kind of gender-neutral pronouns (e.g., me). To summarize: I wouldn't change the formulation *at all*, but if you are willing to change it anyway, please choose the (inelegant but clearer) form "his/hers". Regards, Stefano
