Detect non-inclusive language in your source code | Hacker News Reader

Detect non-inclusive language in your source code

github.com

4 pointsphist_mcgee6 comments

> name: sanity

  terms:
    - sanity

  alternatives:
    - confidence
    - quick check
    - coherence check

Being considered sane is a woke thing now too? I hadn't heard this.

The source comments:

   Most of these are based on https://twitter.com/TwitterEng/status/1278733303508418560

That thread includes: "As someone with mental health problems you guys have really stood up for me by removing "sanity check""

From that we can conclude that 1) this is strongly influenced from Twitter's view of what is inclusive language and 2) there are people who appreciate using an alternative to the term "sanity".

This isn't a hill I care about dying on- I can easily be convinced to replace one word with another in any language.

But it sounds like "as someone with mental health problems" acknowledges that "insane" = "perception/processing/reasoning problems", and that "sane" = "no perception/processing/reasoning problems", therefore the word makes sense.

It sounds like all sides already agree on what "sanity check" means. If people want to get together and replace it, that's fine.

Be aware that this project appears to be the work of primarily a single developer (https://betterprogramming.pub/woke-437880c3de64), taking input primarily from Twitter's stated internal policies on inclusive language.

That's not enough to judge how "sanity" is viewed by all sides of the woke movement as it's too small of a sample.

If you surveyed black programmers and asked them about their experiences with discrimination, how many would cite the use of terms such as "blacklist" in source code? I suspect not many. Changing source code has a cost and should not be done just to signal virtue.

No need to fret.

It appears that this change was not done "just to signal virtue", and that the internal evaluation at Twitter concluded was enough to justify the cost, according to the thread starting at:

https://twitter.com/negroprogrammer/status/12787289536670228...

> I was inspired to start this work when I saw an email come through to our eng org with the line "automatic slave rekick.” Seeing it was infuriating. I’ve been used to seeing the word “slave” throughout my CS education but this was different. ...

> Keeping in mind that there are many different perspectives on inclusive language, we reached out to folks from our business resource groups for help.

Just like it's important to understand the potential benefits, it's also important to understand the cost. This sort of tool appears to help with with the cost part of the analysis.

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