[marquis]

Given the english language requires a gender-specific pronoun (I grew up saying "They" to the chagrin of my teacher) it always makes me a little bit happy to see She in texts. As a woman it makes you realise how much you don't see it. So it stops being a gimmick once the powers that be let us use a non-gendered pronoun ("they" is perfectly fine to me). Or we see a 50/50 split and rewrite the history books accordingly?

Anyway, on topic: we also feel the same way about Angular. Having our APIs abstracted from the beginning into services/factories means we just throw code into a new directive or controller and boom: instant functionality that doesn't cost us a million hours.

[benpbenp]

When I see "she" it makes me reflexively stop and look back to make sure I haven't missed something, wondering, "who is this 'she', I must have skipped the paragraph introducing the subject."

This is definitely bad for readability, the user, and all that. Please, anyone reading this who complains about line-heights and font-sizes, pay attention to grammar as well.

[babby]

Im one to agree. I can see how a woman would be pleased by seeing this, but, when I scroll up and notice it's a "Nick" who wrote the article, all I can think is; huh? Is this guy trying to be edgy? So I re-read, like you said, and there is no mention of a she.

It's just awkward, please stop with the forced gender equality if that's what that is. If it's just being playful then I guess you can shrug it off.

[jiggy2011]

From the article (the first time "she" is used):

"The developer refuses. She’s worked too hard on Feature X, and dammit, you’ll have to pry it from her cold dead hands!!!"

With the exception of the unnecessary extra !! I don't see what is wrong with the grammer, it's clear in this context that "she" is the developer.

[coldtea]

"Let's artificially use the statistically unlikely case that the developer is a woman, in order to inspire more women to be programmers"...

What kind of BS magic thinking is that?

If you want to inspire women, teach them about the technology as girls and encourage those who like to work with it.

Pronouns ain't where it's at.

[girvo]

I disagree with you. Although I stick to "they" as I think it's perfectly fine grammar wise, you getting upset because of your own bias and thinking it's an issue because the author wrote "she" instead of "he" is a bit silly, in my opinion.

Edit: Oh, and language has a massive effect on our thinking patterns, so yeah, you actual could possibly make the case that pronouns matter. They don't to me, at all, and if they "don't" to you, why express frustration or call it "BS"?

[jiggy2011]

This seems rather a stretch , I don't see anybody suggesting that this is a panacea but I see no downside to this approach.

There is no loss of clarity in writing whether your hypothetical developer is a "he" , "she" or any other pronoun. It is certainly preferable to clumsily using "they".

[abrons]

When I see a comment like this, it makes me reflexively stop and look back to see if the commenter is trying to make a joke, or is really so dense and petty that they're trying to make this an issue.

[aaronem]

On HN? Do you really have to ask?

[lewispollard]

Maybe the problem is with you, and not with the text?

[jules]

As far as I am aware 'he' has two meanings in common parlance, one gender neutral and one specifically referring to males. 'she' on the other hand has only one meaning, it always specifically refers to females. When people use 'she' when not referring to a woman this always strikes me as slightly weird, just like it always strikes me as slightly weird when I read old quotes that specifically refer to men, e.g.:

"Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it." -- Rene Decartes

[marquis]

>As far as I am aware 'he' has two meanings in common parlance, one gender neutral and one specifically referring to males.

That works, if you were educated before 1960: "The use of he to refer to a person of unknown gender was prescribed by manuals of style and school textbooks from the early 18th century until around the 1960s" [1]

The thing is, you have read, most of your life, seeing male pronouns. I was a young teenage girl when I realised this and it made me feel left out, like I'd never be relevant. Acknowledging half the population is a good start - I like those programming books for example where Alice and Bob are equally represented.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-specific_and_gender-neut...