Comment by sgeisenh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sgeisenh | Hacker News Reader

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Even if harassment isn't commonplace, hearing Coq pronounced can be jarring. It is less than ideal that you need to be mindful of how you use the name of a tool that is the gold standard for a particular niche.

Others posted similar things, but imagine that you're a female PhD candidate and your male advisor asks you: "How familiar are you with Coq?" or "Are you good with Coq?"

Sure, the advisor could have asked "How familiar are you with the theorem prover Coq?" but it shouldn't be necessary to do so.

It seems petty and childish to be considering a name change over this, but it is far from unprecedented (e.g. "Beaver College" changed their name to "Arcadia University" in 2001). Having a more utterable name can lead to more widespread use and discussion of the tool with laypeople.

First of all, you can just correctly pronounce it with oh instead of uh if you don't want it to sound like the slang.

Second, Coq sounds kinda like a slang word in English, so it must be changed; bit is pronounced exactly like the slang word for the same thing in French, but you would be laughed at if you suggest changing bit something less offensive like bigit? For many of us non-anglophones, the creeping English-language supremacy is neither natural and inevitable nor welcome.

If by "correct" pronunciation you mean the French one, the vowel is actually somewhere in between "coke" and "cock". English speakers might hear either word when the French word is spoken.

> Others posted similar things, but imagine that you're a female PhD candidate and your male advisor asks you: "How familiar are you with Coq?" or "Are you good with Coq?"

Yeah, a bit awkward for about 5 seconds until both parties know what you're talking about, because of context.

Is that what the authors are referring to as "harassment" or where does the whole harassment come from? That's my biggest question here. I have nothing against people wanting it to change, I just want to understand the reasoning behind it, and how even people manage to harass others via a project name.

I think it's instructive that s/coq/git/ , s/(fe)?male// and the situation feels similar to how I felt with git a decade ago.

Next, we all stop referring to the different ends of connectors as male and female. Way to suggestive for adults to use

We prefer plug and receptacle.

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