Code humor and inclusiveness

Posted Jun 25, 2021 8:56 UTC (Fri) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: Code humor and inclusiveness by marcH
Parent article: Code humor and inclusiveness

The problem with that is --dictionary inclusive_GB_English

There's more than a few words that have VERY different meanings depending on which version of English you are using. And what happens when a word is in inclusive_GB but exclusive_US, or vice-versa?

The only solution that works is "try not to give offense, be slow to take offense". The first is not always possible! and the second is needed to defuse failures. (And the reason the first is not always possible, is there are FAR too many people for whom the second does not apply. One only has to look at the discussion about fags to see why.)

Cheers,
Wol

Code humor and inclusiveness

Posted Jun 25, 2021 9:23 UTC (Fri) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link] (2 responses)

I think you missed my first sentence:

> While politics are complicated and messy, the TECHNICAL solution to this problem is dead-simple.

Once the technical problem is solved, any project can decide to use any dictionaries they want.

> And what happens when a word is in inclusive_GB but exclusive_US, or vice-versa?

Spellchecker and inclusive checkers always exclude terms, they never force you to use certain words. How would they!?

Code humor and inclusiveness

Posted Jun 25, 2021 20:49 UTC (Fri) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (1 responses)

I had great problems discussing race issues on Groklaw because "black" is in Inclusive_GB, but the translation "African American" is both wrong and, imho, belongs in Exclusive_GB.

Spell checkers etc don't force you to use certain words, true, but if your words are in someone else's exclusive dictionary then it makes it impossible to communicate ...

Cheers,
Wol

Code humor and inclusiveness

Posted Jun 26, 2021 2:54 UTC (Sat) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link]

Understood: finding common language can be difficult when discussing sensitive topics. On the other hand, I don't expect to ever have to use "African American" in source code and no one has requested to rename red-black trees yet. Worst case we'll just do as the Americans do and get back to work, what's new? After all what countries are the GAFAM, FAANG and many others based from?