[Koha-devel] Let's avoid antecedent confuson too (was Gender-neutral pronouns)

[Mark Tompsett]

Greetings,

+1 to the idea of gender neutral pronouns.

However, the example confused half-awake me. Sometimes the antecedent is not 
always clear when using a pronoun, and the pronoun should be avoided.

--- BEGIN SNIP ---
Before:


is( $total, $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J, "Kid growing and become a 
juvenile, he should pay " . ( $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J ) );

After:

is( $total, $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J, "Kid growing and become a 
juvenile, they should pay " . ( $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J ) );
--- END SNIP ---

Who is to pay? The kid? The guarantor? We also need to avoid antecedent 
confusion.

“Kid growing and become a juvenile, they should pay” might be better worded
“A child growing and becoming a juvenile has a fee of “. Because frankly, a 
library doesn’t care who pays a fee. They only care that a fee charged for a 
particular reason is paid.

This would also clarify that it is the change of class, not a particular 
gender that affects the fees, because
“[i]nappropriately using a particular gender can cause confusion, leading 
someone to believe that code operates differently based on the value of 
borrowers.sex, for instance.”

Just some random morning thoughts.

GPML,
Mark Tompsett