OpenJDK source has too many swear words | Hacker News Reader

OpenJDK source has too many swear words

bugs.openjdk.java.net

9 pointsCraneWorm8 comments

Whatever floats your boat, but why should everyone have to comply with the most thin-skinned and sensitive of the group?

This clutching at pearls is, from my viewpoint, very silly.

I suppose it's easier to just go along to get along, but sometimes I feel like it's reasonable people in the middle who are constantly giving (to both sides of the political spectrum).

In my opinion, this is not an issue of people who are sensitive to the f-bomb, it's an issue of professionalism in a professional application. After all, people who would be sensitive to the f-bomb to the point where they would actually be offended by it wouldn't exactly be participating in any community populated by people over the age of 7, right? The issue here is that the author of the sources was obviously not being professional, and the existence of these statements were not offensive, but off-putting, especially when you consider that OpenJDK was made by a legitimate corporation that isn't exactly known for joking around.

I'm puzzled by the term "legitimate corporation" in this context.

Feels like a true scotsman.

I don't understand the point of cussing in software comments. Comments describe the reasoning behind the code, and this shouldn't be emotional at all, but informative. We don't see language like this in bus route pamphlets and assembly instructions, so why is it in source code?

Yes, I understand that sometimes software can be frustrating, especially when doing integration work, but swearing does not contribute anything positive besides a bit of a chuckle from some people. I'm not offended when I see it, just disappointed that the documentation isn't as clear as it could be.

Leave that kind of language to mailing lists and forums, which are designed for venting. If this came up in a code review, I'd reject it on the grounds of not being relevant to the code.

First they came for the Common Region for Access Protection, and I did not speak out -- because I was not full of Common Regions for Access Protection.

Then they came for the f-bombs, and I did not Bitch Bend sensitively -- because I didn't care an f'ing BitArray.

Then they came for smarks, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a fan of olwm.

Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to curse for me!

This is absolutely ridiculous. God knows how many swear words are in the Mac/Windows? We know how many are in Linux [0]. These are all professional pieces of software and yet the world does not come to halt because they have swear words in their source code. I'm all for gender-neutralizing documentation and hell, even source code, but this is just an example of people getting offended over nothing at all.

[0] https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/wordcount/

From the JIRA comments:

  Adam Farley added a comment - Yesterday

  After discussion with the community, three determinations 
  were reached: 
  - "Damn" and "Crap" are not swear words. 
  - Three of the four f-bombs are located in jszip.js, 
  which should be corrected upstream (will follow up). 
  - The f-bomb in BitArray.java, as well as the rude typo 
  in SoftChannel.java, *are* swear words and should be 
  removed to resolve this work item.

  A new webrev will be created and uploaded to reflect these determinations.

But as long as they are in the source code and not in the actual documentation...? jk, this could come out as a harsh environment for newcomers, and as long as it is easy to remove the swear words, I think is a good thing somebody is paying attention to such details.

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