OpenJDK Bug Report Complains Source Code 'Has Too Many Swear Words' (java.net)

Thursday a bug report complained that the source code for OpenJDK, the free and open-source implementation of Java, "has too many swear words." An anonymous reader writes: "There are many instances of swear words inside OpenJDK jdk/jdk source, scattered all over the place," reads the bug report. "As OpenJDK is used in a professional context, it seems inappropriate to leave these 12 instances in there, so here's a changeset to remove them."
IBM software developer (and OpenJDK team member and contributor) Adam Farley responded that "after discussion with the community, three determinations were reached":

• "Damn" and "Crap" are not swear words.

• Three of the four f-bombs are located in jszip.js, which should be corrected upstream (will follow up).

• The f-bomb in BitArray.java, as well as the rude typo in SoftChannel.java, *are* swear words and should be removed to resolve this work item.

He promised a new webrev would be uploaded to reflect these determinations, and the bug has been marked as "resolved."

Comments

Well, for an expansive definition of "bug"

[Geoffrey.landis]

That's a pretty wide definition of "bug".
I'd think that maybe they could devote their debugging efforts to more annoying bugs...

Re: Well, for an expansive definition of "bug"

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah yes, when I think of who would be most likely to be offended by swear words, my mind also totally ignores the possibility of religious people.

Religion is for stupid sheep.

Caring about what religious people are offended by is for idiots.

Make sure you update your tiny little brain to reflect these facts.

Re: Well, for an expansive definition of "bug"

[Cylix]

That people who look for swear words in code have too much free time and too fragile personalities.

Re: Well, for an expansive definition of "bug"

[Dunbal]

What is your definition of annoying?

People who go around looking at code comment sections and bitch about swear words while adding absolutely nothing to the actual code development. That's pretty fucking annoying.

Yeah ...

[cpurdy]

Fuck this shit ...

Re: Yeah ...

[edris90]

Those who prioritize social constructs such as professionism above function , are not mentally capable of the technical focus required to work in a technical field. If those are your priorities maybe you should be in a debate Forum instead arguing ethics for a living

The rot is growing stronger

[gweihir]

Obviously, we are moving more towards NewSpeak. It seems nobody reads the classics anymore and the same evil mistakes are getting prevalent again.

Re:The rot is growing stronger

[AmiMoJo]

While I personally don't five a flying fuck about swearing in source code and can't really see how it could be an issue when using the JDK in a "professional" environment, you are massively over-reacting.

If the source contained stuff like personal attacks, doxing, or giant ASCII penises that stuff would probably be removed for what are hopefully obvious reasons. So clearly there are already some standards in place that have been widely enforced for as long as modern English has existed, and didn't cause any problems.

Not to mention the absurdity of not wanting a few widely recognized impolite words that have been banned in many areas such as pre-watershed TV forever being equated to the fall of civilisation into fascism or whatever it was you were alluding to.

It's very hard to have a reasonable discussion about this when the first post is such an extreme over-reaction.

Re:The rot is growing stronger

[djinn6]

Open source is a hobby, not a profession. Yes, there are some people who are paid to create open source software. They can censor their own communication if they so desire, or their boss might force it upon them, but they do not have a right to control others.

IMO if a particular curse word is the best way to communicate something, then they should use it without reservation. E.g. writing "this implementation makes no fucking sense" communicates a very different level of confusion and urgency than "this implementation makes no sense" or "this needs to be refactored asap".

Personally, if I saw that in the code base, I would not remove the curse word until I'm able to refactor the code and make the comment obsolete.

Dear Snoflakes,

[Anonymous Coward]

Please fuck off.

Sincerely,

mankind.

Changing the word won't make it so.

[SchroedingersCat]

As if removing the words will make that monstrous ball of crap better.

So: that is English swear words dealed with ...

[Alain Williams]

is someone now going to waste their time checking for variable names, words in comments, ... that just happen to be a swear word in French, German, ... and by transliteration Hindi, Chinese, ... ?

This is exactly why you should try not to swear

[SuperKendall]

People kept messing with it. Finally the dev checked in // DO NOT F****ING TOUCH THIS - and the regressions went away.

This is exactly why you should really try not to swear, in writing or in speech...

It's because it cheapens the words, and they loose effect.

These days if someone called you a motherfucker, it's kind of like calling you annoying. It has no power.

The reason that comment kept people away is because swearing in code is still relatively uncommon, so it has power. So keep the F-bombs out of code, so when the time comes where it is needed, it still works.

Parents Television Council

[tepples]

religion doesn't prohibit others from swearing. It only prohibits the religious person themselves from swearing.

Until the religious people set up organizations like Parents Television Council that lobby governments to prohibit swearing.