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At last, a voice of sanity!
I can see that we need a gender-neutral way of saying he/she or him/her,
but beyond that, where "sensitive" terms like master/slave have been in
common usage for many years, suddenly coming up with a new term only
confuses the reader, who is likely to say to him/her self:
"Hmmm they didn't use (old Politically incorrect term) so they must mean
something different."
A pox on those who want to force their PC silliness in tech docs.
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At 10:30 AM 5/15/00 +0530, Edwin Skau wrote:
>Hello:
>
>Are we taking the 'political correctness' party too far? What is
>your problem with the term master or slave? Maybe we should knock
>off words like boss, superior, subordinate, inferior, etc. from our
entire lexicon.
>
>The problem with politically correct and incorrect speech is that one can
convey a very mean and hostile message using politically correct
terminology. At the same time, we are going to lose out on a lot of good if
all we can see in a communication are the 'politically incorrect' or
potentially embarassing or insulting.
>
>I was a journalist when the Soccer World Cup finals were to
>be played in the US, and there was a lot of discussion on whether
>the term 'head' should be used in the commentary. Well, convention won
over the finicky, sniggering terminology police. I also see 'header' and
commonly used in this and other lists, without invoking visions of the
Lewinsky girl in action.
>
>Master and Slave convey a very lucid impression of the roles the
components play, and since it serves the purpose without making a personal
assoult on anybody, what's our problem?
>
>IHS
>
>eddy
====================
| Nullius in Verba |
====================
Dan Emory, Dan Emory & Associates
FrameMaker/FrameMaker+SGML Document Design & Database Publishing
Voice/Fax: 949-722-8971 E-Mail: danemory -at- primenet -dot- com
10044 Adams Ave. #208, Huntington Beach, CA 92646
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