this silly and tendentious habit of using feminine pronouns discredits the article.
No, it doesn't. It's a side issue at best. A red herring if you like.
it makes the author look like a PC wank and causes me to question the article's integrity
That you'd immediatly assume PC Wank, when there are many other plausible explanations indicates that you need to start thinking before you start typing. Try it, yo u may be surprised at the results.
People that are prone to such displays of political correctness tend to be liars
Data please?
People who post anonymously tend to be liars
I've only ever met one woman who had skills appropriate to programming
As I've already pointed out to one poster, it's a conspiracy. The industry has gangged together to keep the fact that these women exist secret from people like you. We don't like you, and we won't share our women with you.
:-)
There are plenty of women programmers. Not nearly as many as men, but there are still plenty. Anyway, just because I used the femenine pronoun doesn't mean that I was indicating women in particular, no more than if I'd used the masculine.
if there were female programmers , I'd then know women who I could hold an intelligent conversation with
1. I wanted people to be tripped up, and reread the paragraphs.
2. I'm not so good a writer that I can use gender neutral sentences and make a whole article read well.
3. The masuline pronoun has become generic (as some have pointed out), almost gender neutral in itself. I didn't want a generic pronoun, because I was talking about individuals, and the things that make them unique. I thought that introducing a generic pronoun was just the wrong thing to do.
4. Having eliminated the other two choices I was left with the femenine.
Hey, this is/. not primary school. If you don't like my attitude, tough. I never pretended to be polite.
I'm not a good enough writer to maintain geneder neutrality throughout an entire artilce, nor do I think that the results would be readable.
I didn't use the masculin pronoun because it has shifted its meaning to be gender neutral too. In an article that is discussing individuals I thught it was wrong to use a generic pronoun. This meant that the feminine was my only choice.
Most programmers are male, but this has nothing to do with my choice of pronoun.
What's with this trend towards spouting total shite when it's totally inappropriate?
If you've only met three women in a decade you need to change your deoderant.
There are plenty of female programmers, it's just that the industry as a whole decided not to let you know about it. We're like that you see, we hate bigots.
Try to think (I know it's hard), for a moment (which is probably all you can concentrate for), on why I might have used the frminine pronoun in my article. I promise, it wasn't out of ignorance or bigotry.
This just isn't true. In fact, despite the fact that you're arguing that you're not racist, you quite clearly are.
I've just come back from a conference with the VP of Quality at Infosys. He's just hired another 2000 developers, for which there were 400,000 applicants. He chose the top 0.5%, and gives them 3 months solid training before they're allowed to touch customer's code.
He has 15,000 developers, and over 1000 projects a year. 90% of his customers are repeat customers, and all of their projects are successful. They left CMM level 5 behind a few years ago.
"Which shows that this guy doesn't know scientists"
But I am a scientist. I have the degree to prove it -- B.Sc. (the Sc. stands for Science).
I think that you have no idea what a scientist is, or what they do. Yes, on occasions they can be like programmers, but most of the time it's repetative experiments, over and over and over and over and over and over... you get the idea. One creative thought can lead to years of monotony.
Science, by it's formal definition, isn't at all creative, but mearly seeks to document the world as it really is. I don't see any room there for creativity.
BD
I didn't mean 'he', and I'm not talking about babysitters.
Can you think of any reason for my using the feminine here, other than ignorance? (there is a reason)
BD
I didn't say that programmers should be treated as professionals, I said that they should be treated as creative individuals.
Yes, actally, if you're creative then you deserve special consideration. Writing a letter for a phb isn't creative. Designing a technical solution to a complex problem is creative. Programmers are asked to invent more things in a week than Edison (et al) did in their lifetimes. We're not just creative, we're exceptionally creative, and we get even better if you'll let us.
Why not, 'her'?
As the author I exert my right to write anything I please. I'm not trying to appease your sensibilities.
As it happens, I used feminine pronouns to hightlight that fact that I was talking about individuals; to draw attention to the programmer as a person, rather as a generic switchable unit (as I feel is implied with the male pronoun).
If you don't like it, don't read it -- your choice.
BD
Slashdot Mirror
No, it doesn't. It's a side issue at best. A red herring if you like.
it makes the author look like a PC wank and causes me to question the article's integrity
That you'd immediatly assume PC Wank, when there are many other plausible explanations indicates that you need to start thinking before you start typing. Try it, yo u may be surprised at the results.
People that are prone to such displays of political correctness tend to be liars
Data please?
People who post anonymously tend to be liars
I've only ever met one woman who had skills appropriate to programming
As I've already pointed out to one poster, it's a conspiracy. The industry has gangged together to keep the fact that these women exist secret from people like you. We don't like you, and we won't share our women with you.
There are plenty of women programmers. Not nearly as many as men, but there are still plenty. Anyway, just because I used the femenine pronoun doesn't mean that I was indicating women in particular, no more than if I'd used the masculine.
if there were female programmers , I'd then know women who I could hold an intelligent conversation with
Unlikely.
BD
Glad you liked the article.
1. I wanted people to be tripped up, and reread the paragraphs.
2. I'm not so good a writer that I can use gender neutral sentences and make a whole article read well.
3. The masuline pronoun has become generic (as some have pointed out), almost gender neutral in itself. I didn't want a generic pronoun, because I was talking about individuals, and the things that make them unique. I thought that introducing a generic pronoun was just the wrong thing to do.
4. Having eliminated the other two choices I was left with the femenine.
BD
Where did you hear that? Did you take their word for it, or investigate yourself?
BD
Err, yes, actually, it does. Glad you liked the article ;-)
Hey, this is /. not primary school. If you don't like my attitude, tough. I never pretended to be polite.
I'm not a good enough writer to maintain geneder neutrality throughout an entire artilce, nor do I think that the results would be readable.
I didn't use the masculin pronoun because it has shifted its meaning to be gender neutral too. In an article that is discussing individuals I thught it was wrong to use a generic pronoun. This meant that the feminine was my only choice.
Most programmers are male, but this has nothing to do with my choice of pronoun.
BD
Better give up then
BD
What's with this trend towards spouting total shite when it's totally inappropriate?
If you've only met three women in a decade you need to change your deoderant.
There are plenty of female programmers, it's just that the industry as a whole decided not to let you know about it. We're like that you see, we hate bigots.
Try to think (I know it's hard), for a moment (which is probably all you can concentrate for), on why I might have used the frminine pronoun in my article. I promise, it wasn't out of ignorance or bigotry.
BD
I've just come back from a conference with the VP of Quality at Infosys. He's just hired another 2000 developers, for which there were 400,000 applicants. He chose the top 0.5%, and gives them 3 months solid training before they're allowed to touch customer's code.
He has 15,000 developers, and over 1000 projects a year. 90% of his customers are repeat customers, and all of their projects are successful. They left CMM level 5 behind a few years ago.
They're Indian. BD
"Which shows that this guy doesn't know scientists" But I am a scientist. I have the degree to prove it -- B.Sc. (the Sc. stands for Science). I think that you have no idea what a scientist is, or what they do. Yes, on occasions they can be like programmers, but most of the time it's repetative experiments, over and over and over and over and over and over... you get the idea. One creative thought can lead to years of monotony. Science, by it's formal definition, isn't at all creative, but mearly seeks to document the world as it really is. I don't see any room there for creativity. BD
Interesting opinion. Got any evidence?
I didn't mean 'he', and I'm not talking about babysitters. Can you think of any reason for my using the feminine here, other than ignorance? (there is a reason) BD
You rewrote your rant, and yet it's still a rant.
I didn't say that programmers should be treated as professionals, I said that they should be treated as creative individuals.
Yes, actally, if you're creative then you deserve special consideration. Writing a letter for a phb isn't creative. Designing a technical solution to a complex problem is creative. Programmers are asked to invent more things in a week than Edison (et al) did in their lifetimes. We're not just creative, we're exceptionally creative, and we get even better if you'll let us.
BD
sorry, this is total sh1te
Why not, 'her'? As the author I exert my right to write anything I please. I'm not trying to appease your sensibilities. As it happens, I used feminine pronouns to hightlight that fact that I was talking about individuals; to draw attention to the programmer as a person, rather as a generic switchable unit (as I feel is implied with the male pronoun). If you don't like it, don't read it -- your choice. BD
If it were as easy as that then I wouldn't have had to write the article...