[ZDP] BackTalk to Document The Zope Book (2.5 Edition)/Advanced Page Templates

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Sun, 26 Jan 2003 04:27:03 -0500


A comment to the paragraph below was recently added via http://www.zope.org/Documentation/Books/ZopeBook/current/AdvZPT.stx#3-112

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      If you change the macro (for example, if the copyright holder
      changes their name) then all Page Templates that use the macro
      will automatically reflect the change.

        % Anonymous User - June 4, 2002 3:51 pm:
         "holder" is singular, "their" is plural. Maybe "if the copyright holder changes its name" That's bad but
         politically more correct than the ideal "if the copyright holder changes his name". The English language
         needs a non gender specific, singular, personal pronoun if we're to continue this PC garbage.

        % Anonymous User - Sep. 26, 2002 3:51 pm:
         If i define a macro on a certain HTML tag (like <p>...</p>), am i required to use it on the same kind of HTML
         tag (ie <p>...</p>)?

        % Anonymous User - Nov. 28, 2002 7:07 pm:
         I disagree, I'd say that using 'their' is the best pronoun to use and that it can be both singular and plural
         in the same way that you can be both singular and plural.

        % Anonymous User - Jan. 26, 2003 4:27 am:
         No, it isn't. It's not correct English, despite the depths spoken English has declined to in some locales.
         "their" is _always_ plural.
         See http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=their if you doubt me. While it's correct that "you" can either
         be singular or plural, that fact doesn't mean that the English language is regular with respect to other
         pronouns.
         I'd personally argue for using "it," actually. A copyright holder isn't necessarily human; heck, these days,
         most probably aren't. Failing that, "he" would be best---it's the closest thing English has to a
         gender-neutral personal pronoun. People have used it in that sense for a while now.