Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
In November 2019, Denis Pushkarev, maintainer of the popular core-js library, lost an appeal to overturn an 18-month prison sentence imposed for driving his motorcycle into two pedestrians, killing one of them.
As a result, he's expected to be unavailable to update core-js, a situation that has project contributors and other developers concerned about the fate of his code library.
Pushkarev, known as zloirock on GitHub, mentioned the possibility he may end up incarcerated in a thread last May discussing the addition of post-install ads to generate revenue for a project that so many use and so few pay for. He anticipated he may need to pay for legal or medical expenses related to his motorcycle accident.
In that thread, developer Nathan Dobrowolski asked, "If you are in prison, who will maintain [core-js] then?"
Pushkarev offered no answer. Since his conviction last October, the need to resolve that question has become more than theoretical.
-- submitted from IRC
So dear soylentil developers, are there any libraries you are depending on that have a single point of failure?
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday March 31 2020, @06:21AM
You're correct insofar as I was alternating genders, which is no the same thing as sex. But there's no mistake and no confusion.
You're correct insofar as one possible, and in my view logical and unobjectionable approach is simply to default to the unmarked gender. Plenty of precedent, and as I said personally unobjectionable.
But it's not the one true and only correct way. Language is more flexible than that. English in particular is more flexible than that. Some people find it objectionable. It's not a huge deal.
Conspicuously alternating between the marked and unmarked form is almost precisely the same, except it gives an explicit cue as to which of two plausible ways it is to be read. In a sense, this is a better alternative, simply because it is less ambiguous.
"Barring that, just say, "the user.""
The proper English is "one." As in "when one finds oneself in a hole, one must first stop digging."
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?