On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 12:14 PM, Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net> wrote:
> On 8/26/15 3:55 AM, Thomas Munro wrote:
> > On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 10:19 AM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
> >> As mentioned upthread, constructive criticism in the form of a patch
> >> might serve to move the discussion forward.
> >
> > Here is a patch showing around 45 suggested changes to get the ball
> > rolling. Mostly "he or she", but sometimes other wording, and in one
> > case I took a few liberties and introduced <literal>name</> to stand
> > in for database objects instead of pronouns which I hope doesn't read
> > too clumsily or change the meaning. I didn't cover the release notes.
> >
> > A big +1 from me for changing this (unintentionally) unwelcoming
> > language generally, whatever the new wording.
>
> (Reviewing this for the commit fest ...), I welcome this discussion and
> am surprised that you have found so many issues. But I'm not in favor
> of this particular patch. I think most people in the discussion were
> not in favor of "he or she", and I feel in most of the cases where you
> dropped the pronoun in favor of just "the", it loses clarity.
>
Thanks for taking a look at this. I don't want my attempt to steer things
in a more conservative direction to result in the original complaint not
being fixed, so how about considering just this change to start.sgml for
now:
<para>
Possibly, your site administrator has already created a database
- for your use. He should have told you what the name of your
+ for your use and told you what the name of your
database is. In that case you can omit this step and skip ahead
to the next section.
</para>
> I would be mildly in favor of singular they, but it needs to be woven in
> carefully.
>
To me it doesn't seem to fit the tone or register of the manual, but I'll
be happy to try it that way if someone else doesn't beat me to it.
(Apparently people have been arguing about this for hundreds of years, and
I don't intend to join them...)
--=20
Thomas Munro
http://www.enterprisedb.com
"The average American needs the small routines of getting ready for work.
As he shaves or blow-dries his hair or pulls on his panty-hose, he is
easing himself by small stages into the demands of the day."
=E2=80=94=E2=80=AFC. Badendyck, New York Times (1985)
