William H. Geiger III wrote:
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In <Pine.SUN.3.91.980825155854.3483A-100000@baker>, on 08/25/98 at 04:19 PM, Xcott Craver <caj@math.niu.edu> said:
On Tue, 25 Aug 1998, William H. Geiger III wrote:
<sigh> Now we have to worry about PC variable and function names. What a crock.
Oh, yeah, you really have to worry about *accidentally* calling your variables getwatermelons and somefriedchicken. Reminds me of this one guy in our neighborhood who was just jogging by our house, bent down to tie a shoelace, lost his balance and accidentally planted a huge burning cross in our front lawn. Woops! Those damn PC-mongers are making it a crime to jog!
Yes and if I want to name my variables getwatermelons and somefiredchicken who are you to tell me I can't?
A company worth working for will have a policy that tells you you cannot. (Ok, those variables are a fuzzy issue - Very bad taste. The violent stuff mentioned in the original article is clear cut, however)
One note: I don't see why this lawsuit would be hard to win on the grounds that source code isn't necessarily "speech." If co-workers left a big wooden swastika on her desk it wouldn't be speech either, but I'd call that actionable.
But they didn't. There is no proof that any of theses variable names were written to be directed at her and the majority of them were written *before* she ever started working there!!
So what's your point? Creating a hostile environment with the expectation that you'll never hire someone who's black is "ok"?