

Codea is on sale for 1 dollar, grab it and teach your child programming - antirez
http://twolivesleft.com/Codea/

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antirez
Title changed, sorry, I did an error because of my poor English. In Italian if
you say "your son" there is not a strong correlation with the gender.

EDIT: To everybody that signaled this news because there was an error in the
title: now it is outside the listing, and many daughters (and sons) lost the
possibility of being exposed to it. Overreacting is always bad.

EDIT2: considering the issue again, overreacting is probably better than
overlooking this kind of issue...

~~~
_corbett
calling people on sexism isn't overreacting, it is simply reacting. and saying
people should be silent when they see stuff like this is much worse in the
long run for the community.

~~~
antirez
That was pretty clearly unintentional. Every xmas I do the best of my efforts
to purchase gift for my little female cousins that can help them developing
skills, while unfortunately many others will buy them a Barbie, so I really
care about this kind of issues. But writing a bad title unintentionally is not
sexism.

~~~
mooism2
Your English is good enough that I, for one, didn't realise it wasn't your
first language.

~~~
antirez
Thanks, btw thinking about this better, overreacting is better than
overlooking at this kind of issues.

~~~
_corbett
for sure! and I try to understand the non-native speaker issue, I live in
Switzerland, and am a native English speaker who tries my hand at German
sometimes to mixed results. it's hard and easy to make mistakes.

I've been having a lot of fun with the Codea app, props to the founder and
thanks again for pointing out the sale

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Jun8
This is great news, wanted to buy this for a long time, now there's no reason
to do it.

On a linguistic note, though: this small mistake exposes an interesting rift
between what's understood to be "sexist language" in the US and in Europe.
People are hypersensitive about this issue in the US, typical example is using
constructs like "he or she" or just always using the feminine pronoun, with
the argument that (I'm simplifying it, of course, so that the margin can hold
it) consistent use of "he", say in scientific writing, discourages women from
participating.

What always amazed me is that in European countries with a solid track record
of feminism, such linguistic issues do not matter. In German, the use of
"Mann" is common, there are many female nouns derived from the masculine
forms, e.g. "die Hackerin" (discussed on HN:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2908972>, akin to the _-ess_ ending in
English), etc. In French, even if there is only one male in a group, it is
referred to using the masculine plural. Many more examples can be given (the
"your son" vs "your child" mistake in the title being another one), which to
the US ear would be cases of sexism. Yet, this "sexist usage" does not seem to
have the negative consequence on female performance in Europe.

What gives?

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antirez
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated at all with Codea, I just happen to like it and
to think it is a very good thing for children.

iTunes link: <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/codea/id439571171?mt=8>

~~~
_corbett
awesome to know! I just saw this the other day and made a note to buy it

you should also teach your daughter to program, the title of your link is
pretty much the definition of sexist

~~~
bulte-rs
Exactly! I'm currently expecting my first child; but putting the purchase of
this app on hold until I know for sure I'll get a son. ;-)

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thehodge
Would probably change the title to teach your child programming...

have bought the app anyway :)

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tlear
This is actually a great title it will draw in more traffic because of the
supposed controversy of it

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richardg
This is a great app.. Just bought it! Makes me take a look at Lua too..

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dextorious
The title is a DISGRACE!

What about the 1% of the audience that will teach their _daughter_ instead?

This extreme sexist attitude is why there aren't enough women startup founders
--and not enough women at the parties me and my buddies throw, like last
month's "Yacc and Lex Appreciation Party". We even had free Jolt Cola!

~~~
talmand
Wow, overreact much?

~~~
mooism2
Did you see the original title before the OP changed it?

I thought dextorious's comment was intended to satirise both the people who
complain about sexism in hacker culture, and the people who insist there's no
sexism in hacker culture.

~~~
talmand
I did not, but I know what the original title was. I just don't feel the need
to make assumptions based on a line of text when I may not understand the
context. I, for one, would not accuse someone of sexism because they chose
"your son" over "your child". This is a big world, different people from
different cultures have different ways of saying things.

I have to admit, I did sense a hint of sarcasm to the post but I suppose it
was too subtle for me.

~~~
mooism2
My objection was only ever that the title was sexist. I didn't accuse antirez
of being sexist, and I didn't see anyone else accuse antirez of being sexist.

It's unfortunate that dextorious's comment led you to believe that people
opposed to sexism were making assumptions.

