Hello Christina, * Christina Gratorp wrote on Fri, Jun 04, 2010 at 08:58:53AM CEST: > I have a suggestion that would make a difference when visiting your > otherwise eminent website: > http://sources.redhat.com/automake/automake.html#Introduction. The sentence > "The developer expresses the recipe to build *his* package in a Makefile" > must be wrong since I'm a woman and a user and have packages I want to build > and those packages are mine, i.e *hers* would be correct in this case. (I > know that his could be considered neutral but really, it doesn't feel that > way.)
Thanks again for the report. I went through the manual and changed all instances that I could find, as below, and added you to THANKS. The patch is for maint, merged in branch-1.11 and master. Cheers, Ralf Rewrite manual to be gender-neutral. * doc/automake.texi (GNU Build System) (Standard Directory Variables, General Operation, CVS) (Hard-Coded Install Paths, Dependencies As Side Effects): Rewrite text to not contain gender-specific pronouns when speaking about developers or users, either by avoiding pronouns or by addressing them as `you' instead. * THANKS: Update. Report by Christina Gratorp. diff --git a/doc/automake.texi b/doc/automake.texi index 59018ca..2bf3291 100644 --- a/doc/automake.texi +++ b/doc/automake.texi @@ -456,13 +456,13 @@ GNU Build System @section Introducing the GNU Build System @cindex GNU Build System, introduction -It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a developer in -possession of a new package, must be in want of a build system. +It is a truth universally acknowledged, that as a developer in +possession of a new package, you must be in want of a build system. In the Unix world, such a build system is traditionally achieved using the command @command{make} (@pxref{Top, , Overview, make, The GNU Make -Manual}). The developer expresses the recipe to build his package in -a @file{Makefile}. This file is a set of rules to build the files in +Manual}). You express the recipe to build your package in a +...@file{makefile}. This file is a set of rules to build the files in the package. For instance the program @file{prog} may be built by running the linker on the files @file{main.o}, @file{foo.o}, and @file{bar.o}; the file @file{main.o} may be built by running the @@ -725,8 +725,8 @@ Standard Directory Variables @opindex --prefix -A user who wishes to install a package on his own account could proceed -as follows: +As a user, if you wish to install a package on your own account, you +could proceed as follows: @example ~/amhello-1.0 % @kbd{./configure --prefix ~/usr} @@ -1761,7 +1761,7 @@ General Operation arbitrary code into the generated @file{Makefile.in}. For instance, the Automake distribution includes a non-standard rule for the @code{git-dist} target, which the Automake maintainer uses to make -distributions from his source control system. +distributions from the source control system. @cindex GNU make extensions @@ -10454,7 +10454,7 @@ CVS out-of-date file is up-to-date. For instance, suppose a developer has modified @file{Makefile.am} and -has rebuilt @file{Makefile.in}. He then decides to do a last-minute +has rebuilt @file{Makefile.in}, and then decides to do a last-minute change to @file{Makefile.am} right before checking in both files (without rebuilding @file{Makefile.in} to account for the change). @@ -11532,10 +11532,10 @@ Hard-Coded Install Paths @samp{$(datadir)}, etc.), the effect will be the same: user-installations are impossible. -When a (non-root) user wants to install a package, he usually has no -right to install anything in @file{/usr} or @file{/usr/local}. So he -does something like @samp{./configure --prefix ~/usr} to install -package in his own @file{~/usr} tree. +As a (non-root) user who wants to install a package, you usually have no +right to install anything in @file{/usr} or @file{/usr/local}. So you +do something like @samp{./configure --prefix ~/usr} to install a +package in your own @file{~/usr} tree. If a package attempts to install something to some hard-coded path (e.g., @file{/etc/afile}), regardless of this @option{--prefix} setting, @@ -12552,9 +12552,9 @@ Dependencies As Side Effects maude.o: maude.c something.h @end example -Now suppose that the developer removes @file{something.h} and updates -...@file{maude.c} so that this include is no longer needed. If he runs -...@command{make}, he will get an error because there is no way to create +Now suppose that you remove @file{something.h} and update @file{maude.c} +so that this include is no longer needed. If you run @command{make}, +you will get an error because there is no way to create @file{something.h}. We fixed this problem in a later release by further massaging the