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A comment on Linus Torvalds: “I'm happily hacking on a new save format using ‘libgit2’”. Parent comment

Re:Linus Torvalds: “I'm happily hacking on a new save format... by haberman on Saturday March 08, 2014 @12:34PM (#7365740)
That's like campaigning to eliminate pronouns. "Former" and "latter" are just like "it", except they are for when you mentioned two things.

Repeating the proper noun doesn't achieve the goal of emphasizing the fact that you're referring to something you just mentioned.

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Re:Linus Torvalds: “I'm happily hacking on a new save format... by nkurz on Saturday March 08, 2014 @05:06PM (#7366557)
Pronouns are fine. Substituting 'the first' and 'the second' would be an improvement. It's specifically 'former' and 'latter' that should be deprecated. I'd be interested in seeing a study comparing readers' comprehensions of the various phrasings. What cost in clarity would you be willing to pay?
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