brian m. carlson wrote: > On 2021-05-23 at 18:36:10, Felipe Contreras wrote: > > Johannes Schindelin wrote: > > > On Fri, 21 May 2021, Derrick Stolee wrote: > > > > On 5/21/2021 5:59 AM, Bagas Sanjaya wrote: > > > > > On 21/05/21 05.13, Lénaïc Huard wrote: > > > > >> The existing mechanism for scheduling background maintenance is done > > > > >> through cron. On Linux systems managed by systemd, systemd provides an > > > > >> alternative to schedule recurring tasks: systemd timers. > > > > >> > > > > >> The main motivations to implement systemd timers in addition to cron > > > > >> are: > > > > >> * cron is optional and Linux systems running systemd might not have it > > > > >> installed. > > > > >> * The execution of `crontab -l` can tell us if cron is installed but not > > > > >> if the daemon is actually running. > > > > >> * With systemd, each service is run in its own cgroup and its logs are > > > > >> tagged by the service inside journald. With cron, all scheduled tasks > > > > >> are running in the cron daemon cgroup and all the logs of the > > > > >> user-scheduled tasks are pretended to belong to the system cron > > > > >> service. > > > > >> Concretely, a user that doesn’t have access to the system logs won’t > > > > >> have access to the log of its own tasks scheduled by cron whereas he > > > > >> will have access to the log of its own tasks scheduled by systemd > > > > >> timer. > > > > > > > > > > For gender neutrality, we can use he/she instead. > > > > > > > > Singular "they" is better. Fully accurate and less awkward. > > > > > > I agree. > > > > I disagree. > > I'm fully in support of singular "they". To each her/his own. > It provides a useful pronoun to use in this context, is widely > understood and used, is less awkward than "he/she," and is less sexist > than the indefinite "he." I disagree. But I wouldn't presume to dictate how other people speak. If you like it, use it. > > > If the singular they was good enough for Shakespeare, > > > > Shakespeare: > > > > 1. Did not know gammar > > 2. Invented words as we went along > > 3. Was no writing prose > > The point is that it has been used by native English speakers as part of > the language for over half a millennium and is widely used and > understood. A similar thing happens with the word "nucular" [1]; it is used by native English speakers as part of the language for many decades and is widely used and understood. Does that mean it's a valid word? Maybe. But does that make "nuclear" invalid? No. You can use "nucular" if you want (many people do). I will use "nuclear". Both can be valid. > This usage is specified in Merriam Webster[0]: Merriam-Webster is not infallible. But fine: let's say they are correct. Where does it say "they" is *better*? Or worse: where does it say "his/her" is discouraged? > > The singular they is a controversial topic[1][2], even among linguists. > > This is a software project, we must not make decrees about proper use of > > English language, especially when linguists themselves have not yet > > fully decided. > > Linguists fit roughly into two camps: prescriptive and descriptive. I am perfectly aware of the two camps, and I have written about it. > While I am not a linguist, I have a B.A. in English, and my views fit > firmly into the descriptivist camp. If you are a descriptivist (as am I), then you must acknowledge that people use "his/her" *today*. As a descriptivist you shouldn't dare to _prescribe_ how people use words. Therefore, if I use "his/her" (as many people do), you should not prescribe otherwise. > Since we are writing text for an English language audience who are > mostly not linguists, we should probably consider using the language > that most people will use in this context. Consider, yes. Dictate? No. And you don't know how *most* most people speak. Your guess is as good as mine. > It's completely fine for a contributor to propose that they think an > idea is better provided that they do so in a respectful and considerate > way, which I think happened here. If you say you think **in your personal opinion** that A is better than B, that's fine. What was stated here was "A is better". So that's not what happened. > I think it should be fine to use singular they here. You are, of > course, free to feel differently. I do feel differently, but I would not presume to dictate that B is better; I argue both A and B are fine. A. he/she B. they To be perfectly clear; I'm not saying you shouldn't use B; I'm saying A is fine. Cheers. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucular -- Felipe Contreras
