Re: Wtf, GNU?

1

I don't have a "command" button, so I hit Control-O. I still have a penis, possibly because I'm mostly monolingual.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 8:32 PM
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Programmers are from Mars, translators are from Venus?

I can't say I'm all that surprised by sexism in a Gnu manual.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 8:39 PM
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Other questions: what does PO stand for? Is neb writing a program that needs to run in multiple languages?


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 8:41 PM
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I always get a Gnu automatic. Otherwise, I always rock back too far when I start out while facing uphill.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 8:43 PM
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Other questions: what does PO stand for? Is neb writing a program that needs to run in multiple languages?

I'm not writing any programs at all at the moment; I was directed to the gettext manual from a metafilter comment (about plurals), and then I just kept reading because it's so damn fascinating, apparently.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 8:46 PM
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Gnu's not eunuchs.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 8:51 PM
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Neb, do you feel like following the commit trail on the document to see what individual needs to be censured for this? Didn't think so.


Posted by: Hamilton Lovecraft | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 8:53 PM
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Oh, well:
In this manual, we use he when speaking of the programmer or maintainer, she when speaking of the translator, and they when speaking of the installers or end users of the translated program. This is only a convenience for clarifying the documentation. It is absolutely not meant to imply that some roles are more appropriate to males or females. Besides, as you might guess, GNU gettext is meant to be useful for people using computers, whatever their sex, race, religion or nationality!


Posted by: Hamilton Lovecraft | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 8:54 PM
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7: Society is the real villain.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 8:55 PM
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Which reminds me of something I ran into recently. There's a small minority of programming books that pointedly use female pronouns throughout when the choice is otherwise arbitrary, just to push back the tiniest little bit against the status quo.

So naturally someone posted to Stack Overflow asking why all programming books nowadays refer to programmers as she! This is Political Correctness run amok! Most programmers are male, so why not just use the male pronoun? Eeeesh.


Posted by: Hamilton Lovecraft | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 9:00 PM
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8: I even understand the desire for easy distinction in comments, but I made a female coworker of mine very happy when I adopted the convention in comments and documentation that admins of the app I was working on were always "she" and end-users were always "he". I guess you could replace Alice and Bob with Terry and Pat if you really wanted to avoid gender assumptions.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 9:00 PM
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Ham-Love, what's with the "didn't think so"?


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 9:00 PM
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I'm so pissed that I'm never going to program in gnu, like, ever.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 9:01 PM
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You'll be missing out on partytimes, alameida!


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 9:05 PM
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Does anybody else remember "no gnus is good gnus with Gary Gnu?" I can't remember what show it was.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 9:08 PM
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12: Just assumed you had higher-priority things to worry about. Not singling out you in particular so much as projecting my own apathy.


Posted by: Hamilton Lovecraft | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 9:37 PM
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Anyway, per 8, it looks like weak smartassery built around poorly chosen policy rather than complete fail, so a carefully worded email to the bug report address is probably more appropriate than dragging the author into the street by his hair.


Posted by: Hamilton Lovecraft | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 9:41 PM
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15: The Great Space Coaster.

Our generation's version of the Banana Splits Show.


Posted by: Jimmy Pongo | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 10:39 PM
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Like this.

Doesn't really hold up particularly well.


Posted by: Jimmy Pongo | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 10:42 PM
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BTW, Jimmy Pongo, your Happy Mix made an excellent just-add-water party playlist a couple weekends ago. Highly recommended.

Literally adding water is not highly recommended.


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 10-30-10 11:41 PM
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Mixes, hooray!!

Thanks, k-sky! I've been diggin your mix too. To be honest, I had to delete the first track, which, for whatever reason, bugged the shit out of me, but the rest of it has received many listens.


Posted by: Jimmy Pongo | Link to this comment | 10-31-10 12:36 AM
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I guess you could replace Alice and Bob with Terry and Pat if you really wanted to avoid gender assumptions.

But then you risk stereotyping all programmers as Irish.

"Terry, how would yourself go about moving yer cursor into the emacs window containing the program source code you wanted to modify?"

"Sure, Pat, I wouldn't start from here."


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 10-31-10 4:57 AM
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||Fuck with my favorite donkey, and I cut your throat>|


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 10-31-10 7:57 AM
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Posted by: | Link to this comment | 10-31-10 8:17 AM
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23: THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FUCK THE ASS OF A STRANGER!


Posted by: OPINIONATED PARAPHRASED WALTER SOBCHAK | Link to this comment | 10-31-10 8:17 AM
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23: I note happily that the article eschews any of the uglier euphemisms for the delicate an caring "sleeping with".


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 10-31-10 8:32 AM
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"You have made sweet, sweet love to my dearest Russo, and for that you must die."


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 10-31-10 8:33 AM
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26: I read it differently, as a man who in his later years came to realize that decency demanded he spend more time with his paramours.

Known to have had sex regularly with farm animals, Pires started sleeping with them 12 years ago, media reports said.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 10-31-10 8:55 AM
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15: The Great Space Coaster! -- all aboard! on the Great Space Coaster!


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 10-31-10 9:01 AM
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