From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.4 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_50,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 111d6b,328622178ec8b832 X-Google-Attributes: gid111d6b,public X-Google-Thread: 10d15b,328622178ec8b832 X-Google-Attributes: gid10d15b,public X-Google-Thread: 114809,a03ae7f4e53958e1 X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public X-Google-Thread: 1094ba,a03ae7f4e53958e1 X-Google-Attributes: gid1094ba,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,a03ae7f4e53958e1 X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,8775b19e3c68a5dc X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,a03ae7f4e53958e1 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public From: "John W. Lewellen" Subject: Re: Which language pays most -- C++ vs. Java? Date: 1998/02/12 Message-ID: <34E30FD2.2AFE9003@aps.anl.gov>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 324454663 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <6at330$7uj$1@mainsrv.main.nc.us> <6bp6rh$sim$4@peachy.apana.org.au> <6bpoea$rd1$1@bvbsd2.kc.bv.com> <6bsddk$3cp$1@news.nyu.edu> <34E23B11.6AD8@erols.com> <01bd3756$552bf060$efd9cdcf@ms112188.mindspring.com> <34E25602.4F93EF49@for-president.com> <34E27ADB.7DBE@afs.net.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: aps/asd Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.misc,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.fortran,comp.lang.cobol,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.ada Date: 1998-02-12T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Stephen Taylor wrote: > > Dietmar Stumpe wrote: > > >> You might be surprised to discover that his sentence is *correct* based > >> upon what is being taught in schools these days. The sex-neutral use of > >> "they" and "their" to refer to a single person is now in common usage > >> (including the mainstream media) and is being taught in most business > >> writing courses (at least it was seven years ago when I went through B' > >> school). I don't know if this has caught on in grade school or high school > >> yet. If not, it's only a matter or time. You might as well get used to it. > > > I love political correctness! The language will be lost, but it is important > > to use political correctness. LOL > > Political correctness? I'd call this 'politeness'. > > The phrase 'political correctness' is just a rock people use to hit > other people with when they're too intellectually lazy to argue > coherently with them. > > In this instance, using 'they' as a genderless replacement for 'he' > loses precision with respect to number (bad) while gaining accuracy with > respect to gender (good). The language will be lost because of this? The language - and everything else - is lost when someone will go to absurd lengths to avoid the potential of giving offense to someone else. There is a relatively easy solution: redefine "he" "his" "him" etc. to refer to both men and women (i.e. singular person, male or female), keep "she" etc. as referring to a female exclusively (or change it, but since it's already around, why not use it), and define "khe" (or some other letter prefix that's easy to pronounce) "kis" "ker" etc. as referring to a male exclusively. If you *really* want equality in reference, then make the language convenient to do so. This way you can also avoid all the arguments about women being diminished by their references being tack-ons to men's references. (Case in point.) Regards, - John L. -- +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | John Lewellen Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Lab.| | Lewellen@aps.anl.gov Opinions expressed above are solely mine | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+