Re: Comment on introduction pages

[Ralf Wildenhues]

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
address@hidden  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
address@hidden so that this include is no longer needed.  If he runs
address@hidden, 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