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Re:How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Perso... by eieio on Thursday May 17, 2012 @05:33PM (#3989221)
Spivak pronouns have all the benefits of a singular "they" with all the drawbacks of introducing a new set of pronouns into an established language. My experiences with programmers tell me that getting a large group of people to change syntax is not easy.
Re:How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Perso... by masterzora on Thursday May 17, 2012 @06:27PM (#3989442)
Spivak pronouns do indeed come with drawbacks (as do all proposed solutions for gender-neutral language) but I put forth that said drawbacks are minimal. The pronoun set is intuitive to English-speakers and I've found that brief explanation, if any, has been required no more than once per person before they can easily grok my usages.

I agree that from a perspective of getting more people to use them the drawbacks are greater but from the perspective of understanding the drawbacks are essentially non-existent.

Re:How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Perso... by eieio on Thursday May 17, 2012 @06:37PM (#3989491)
I agree with you: Spivak pronouns are definitely easy to understand. I just see getting more people to use them as key to having a standard third person gender neutral pronoun in English.