• (cs) in reply to marvin_rabbit

    I don't see the WTF here.  If you create a frame work to be extensible like this then why not use it for anything.  It might have been used for tables containing hundreds of entries and dozens of columns.  Just because there's one instance where where are only two entries doesn't mean you shouldn't use the framework and create something new and non-standard.

  • (cs) in reply to mallard
    mallard:
    baldric:
    mallard:
    I just noticed that the form's icon is the default VB6 form icon. Does that mean this was written in VB6?
    If so wouldn't that be the *real* WTF?

    Writing a sophisticated single-user database app in VB6 with a complex user interface is enough of a hack, writing a database-driven application framework in VB6, now that is a major WTF.
    lol, I was just waiting for some tool to finally notice the VB6 icon.... Bit slower than usual dontcha think? Tell me good sir, EXACTLY why using VB6 here was a hack? (this should be good.... :) )


    Just to point out, I have used VB6 extensively. Here are some of the reasons that writing complex software in VB6 feels like a hack:
    • Lack of proper error handling. No exceptions, (although you can sometimes use events) just ON ERROR *.
    • The lack of a proper OO model. You have classes, but also forms and modules with no proper superclass or instantiation. Oh, and don't forget usercontrols.
    • Lack of proper multithreading. I still don't understand when things will run concurrently and when they will not. There is also a sort of "co-operative multithreading" (using DoEvents()) that makes things even less clear.
    • The fact that database access is usually through a control associated with the user interface. Same for even timers. Also, if you leave the database control visible, it has record navigation buttons that work with data-bound fields.
    • Data bound fields are really quite broken. They are OK for just browsing data, but they can also be used to create records. In that case, things like validation and giving the user a selector rather than entering data directly become very difficult. I usually find it easier just to not use data binding in the first place, and fill on-screen fields programaticially.
    • Compatibility. Depending on which version of the VB runtime is installed and which version of ADO/DAO is installed, VB6 may be limited to using Access 97 .mdb's or may be able to use Access 2000 .mdb's. Seeing as special conversion steps are necissary in Access 2000+ to open/save 97 files, manual inspection and modifacation become difficult.
    • ADO is difficult to find. I ended up shipping the "MDAC_TYP.EXE" file from the VB6 CD with my last major app, because ADO (3.5) is not installed by default and the "MDAC_TYP.EXE" on microsoft's website only includes ADO 4.0 which does not work the same way.

    Obviously my .mdb and ADO problems only really apply to single-user database apps, the kind I have made in the past. I have not been involved in apps using a database sever, but I have heard of similar issues.

    Your list was weak after item 2 and you left out what I consider one of the worst things -- that there was a magical instance of the form that you could reference using the class name and it was globally available.

    The threading model wasn't that hard to understand.  You could avoid most problems and confusion simply by never calling doevents.

    You broke the number one rule of VB6 form design -- don't use bound controls.

  • (cs)

    Here's my open source product.  It's very extensible and it can use it for almost anything.


    <FONT color=#0000ff size=2>using</FONT><FONT size=2> System;
    </FONT><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>namespace</FONT><FONT size=2> Project1
    { </FONT><FONT color=#808080 size=2>///</FONT><FONT color=#008000 size=2> </FONT><FONT color=#808080 size=2><summary>
    </FONT><FONT size=2></FONT><FONT color=#808080 size=2>   ///</FONT><FONT color=#008000 size=2> Summary description for Class1.
    </FONT><FONT size=2></FONT><FONT color=#808080 size=2>   ///</FONT><FONT color=#008000 size=2> </FONT><FONT color=#808080 size=2></summary>
    </FONT><FONT size=2></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>   public</FONT><FONT size=2> </FONT><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>class</FONT><FONT size=2> Class1
       {
    </FONT><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>      public</FONT><FONT size=2> Class1()
          {
    </FONT><FONT color=#008000 size=2>         //
    </FONT><FONT size=2></FONT><FONT color=#008000 size=2>         // TODO: Add constructor logic here
    </FONT><FONT size=2></FONT><FONT color=#008000 size=2>         //
    </FONT><FONT size=2>      }
    </FONT><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>      public</FONT><FONT size=2> </FONT><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>static</FONT><FONT size=2> </FONT><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>void</FONT><FONT size=2> Main()
          {
          }
       }
    }

    </FONT>
  • (cs) in reply to Greg

    Sex is biological and gender is cultural. So it's possible to be biologically female and learn to act within a male role for a woman raised that way and vice versa. Or as an earlier comment stated, pretty much hippie bullshit.

  • fhic (unregistered) in reply to Kaine
    Seems like they need a generic procedure and form to go along with their generic values. Seriously, though, I can think of one reason to edit the genders: to add 'pre-op male', 'pre-op female', 'post-op male', and 'post-op female' to the list. Some hospitals need to keep track of that.

    That's also needed for State of California Public Health reporting. The additional values they want include "transgendered male-to-female" and "transgendered female-to-male." I can't tell you how long it took me to get our corporate COBOL drones to fix that.

  • (cs) in reply to Andrew Magerman
    Anonymous:
    It's sex. Not gender. Gender is "a distinction of words roughly answering to sex (gram). So, the gender of "La maison" is feminine. Whether a person is a man or a woman is his or her sex. Not his gender.


    Please give an example of gender in English, then.  Just curious, if you maybe creating a distinction without a difference that doesn't really apply to the English language.
  • zulu_man (unregistered) in reply to Another Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Anonymous:


    The ultimate in exstensibility is the Dictionary (pick your favorite).   Every word you're ever going to need is in there.  You just have to drag-n-drop the right ones.  Aye, there's the rub. . .


    Incorrect. I can point to many examples of words that are used in common, everyday speech that are not in your common dictionary. Furturemore I can point to words in most more advanced novels that you will have to go hunting for a dictionary that actually has it. The common dictionary does not.

    However, in terms of infinate extensibility, you could discuss the set of graphemes of the english language, and while that is limited to languages that use english symbology, there is no reason you could not create a database of graphemes of all spoken languages (think unicode). However, that gets you no close to constructing a word than a monkey pounding away on a typewriter.


    I guess infinate is one of those common words. . .   not found in a common dictionary.
  • Fregas (unregistered)

    Truly, truly a GREAT WTF.  Can we say "over-engineered" ?  Even had it been a rewrite of MS Access, why would you need all those classes?  Wasn't the whole fucking point that you just had to edit the database?

     

  • Jeff (unregistered) in reply to Sam
    Anonymous:
    ParkinT:

    SEX is a verb,

    GENDER is a noun

    In addition, my RACE is the same as everyone else: <FONT size=5>HUMAN</FONT>

     

    Huh??  Please conjugate the alleged verb "sex"?

    Ok,

    Sex Sex Sex Sex

    There!

  • (cs) in reply to Greg
    Anonymous:

    One small step for man, but a great step for pre/post/non-op (wo)mankind.


    What's this world coming to? Even people are fully customizable these days!


  • Mithrandir (unregistered) in reply to Kaine
    Anonymous:
    Imagine how many people would love to be offended over such a nuance! Anyone else dealt with people who look for the least reason to take offense?

    I'm Danish... so ... yeah :-)
  • (cs) in reply to Jeff S
    Jeff S:
    Anonymous:

    Satanicpuppy:
    You know, I hate access. It's a common feeling among DBAs and programmers...The damn thing won't let you do anything you really WANT to do.

    However, it's amazing for people who aren't otherwise technically skilled. Everything is drag and drop and very intuitive, you can build (massively inefficient) SQL queries without knowing SQL, you can link tables with a simple drag and drop, and it'll enforce relationships...

    I think their biggest screwup was not in trying to reinvent access, but in reinventing access, poorly. This whole "infinitely extensible" trend is getting out of control. I can give you an extensible system in a few minutes...Modern programming language + Modern Database = extensible system. Now all you need is a few doen people to run it and you're good to go.

    You know, I actually found a use for MS Access and it ain't for database and/or application developpement.  It's the quickest way to interface databases of different origins and run queries on them, like for example running a join table query between an Oracle table and an Excel spreadsheet, copying a MySQL table into MS SQL Server using INSERT INTO... SELECT FROM syntax, etc...

    It's not the fastest running queries, but it gets the job done without having to write code modules.  That's the best power of MS Access, linking systems through ODBC connections.



    Agreed, it is an excelling DTS replacement, and you get the ability to have local storage, a UI, reports, and so on.  I typically write most conversion tools in Access.  You can put everything you need in a single MDB file.

    As for SatanicPuppy -- can you give an example of when Access "won't you do anything you really WANT to do" ?  If you want a true server database application, then yes, it won't let you do that too well.  But if you use it for what it is designed for, it works pretty damn well.


    I have, on occasion, had to design applications in access, and the flow control logic from screen to screen is often enough to make you scream and cry in frustration. It will refuse to cascade update key structures before skipping to the next screen, then throwing an error because it can't find the key that it should have established in the previous screen.

    Just a mess. I find that, in access, the easiest way to make sure it's right is to use handcoded modules everywhere, and, at that point, you might as well be doing it from scratch.

    Though I admit, I use it to connect disparate databases as well. It does do well for that.
  • (cs) in reply to Greg
    Anonymous:
    kipthegreat:
    Anonymous:
    I agree with Das's wife. Gender and sex are not the same thing.  


    ^^^^^^
    Hippie bullshit


    Not very eloquent, but well put. Of course, strictly speaking, they are not 100% synonymous, but in the current discussion, gender could according to my dictionary: definition 2: the state of being male or female. Check yours for an alternative definition...

    Anyway, back to the main issue: they should have added two tables instead of one. One table for sex, the other for gender.

    As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to recommend someone to turn this into law. Think of the possibilities: I'm sure everybody has received mail addressed to "Mr./Mrs.", and I'm also sure you thought that was ridiculous, but with sex/gender addressing, this possibility will become correct.

    One small step for man, but a great step for pre/post/non-op (wo)mankind.


    Yea, politcal correctness is one thing, but the first day that some pcnazi tries to come in and tell me that I have to redesign a whole app to make room for their fuzzy-brained notion of sexual identity, is the day I walk. Let them do their own programming, because finding a competent programmer who's not going to have a problem with maybe logic is going to be a challenge.
  • (cs) in reply to Satanicpuppy
    Satanicpuppy:
    Jeff S:
    Anonymous:

    Satanicpuppy:
    You know, I hate access. It's a common feeling among DBAs and programmers...The damn thing won't let you do anything you really WANT to do.

    However, it's amazing for people who aren't otherwise technically skilled. Everything is drag and drop and very intuitive, you can build (massively inefficient) SQL queries without knowing SQL, you can link tables with a simple drag and drop, and it'll enforce relationships...

    I think their biggest screwup was not in trying to reinvent access, but in reinventing access, poorly. This whole "infinitely extensible" trend is getting out of control. I can give you an extensible system in a few minutes...Modern programming language + Modern Database = extensible system. Now all you need is a few doen people to run it and you're good to go.

    You know, I actually found a use for MS Access and it ain't for database and/or application developpement.  It's the quickest way to interface databases of different origins and run queries on them, like for example running a join table query between an Oracle table and an Excel spreadsheet, copying a MySQL table into MS SQL Server using INSERT INTO... SELECT FROM syntax, etc...

    It's not the fastest running queries, but it gets the job done without having to write code modules.  That's the best power of MS Access, linking systems through ODBC connections.



    Agreed, it is an excelling DTS replacement, and you get the ability to have local storage, a UI, reports, and so on.  I typically write most conversion tools in Access.  You can put everything you need in a single MDB file.

    As for SatanicPuppy -- can you give an example of when Access "won't you do anything you really WANT to do" ?  If you want a true server database application, then yes, it won't let you do that too well.  But if you use it for what it is designed for, it works pretty damn well.


    I have, on occasion, had to design applications in access, and the flow control logic from screen to screen is often enough to make you scream and cry in frustration. It will refuse to cascade update key structures before skipping to the next screen, then throwing an error because it can't find the key that it should have established in the previous screen.

    Just a mess. I find that, in access, the easiest way to make sure it's right is to use handcoded modules everywhere, and, at that point, you might as well be doing it from scratch.

    Though I admit, I use it to connect disparate databases as well. It does do well for that.


    >> "It will refuse to cascade update key structures before skipping to the next screen, then throwing an error because it can't find the key that it should have established in the previous screen."

    Huh?  What "screens" are you talking about?  Do you mean Forms?  Is there any way you can give a specific example of what the heck you are talking about? 

  • (cs) in reply to Jeff S

    I've found blank (free-form text) fields are pretty customizable, too.

    And I think we'll have most of the traditional wars covered if I mention something about regular expressions being the best way to solve it, and maybe something about C versus C# versus C++ versus Java versus Ruby versus Python versus Ruby on Rails versus Perl versus Pascal versus Fortran77 versus COBOL versus Tcl/Tk versus ...

  • David Walker (unregistered) in reply to Coughptcha
    As someone mentioned, most times sex/gender doesn't matter.  Most forms that ask for your "sex" really don't need to know what it is.  I mean, who cares (except the doctor... and a dating service)?
     
    I'll bet half the forms that ask for your sex could remove it with no adverse effects.
  • Derek (unregistered) in reply to Sam
  • Nick (unregistered) in reply to Kaine

    Yes, we have an icon in our system that represents an account and looks like a man. The icon has a very similar shape to the generic male icons you see on bathroom doors. We have had some associates complain that it demonstrates a bias towards males. 

  • Nick (unregistered) in reply to Kaine
    Anonymous:
    At least it gets away from a potential dangerous situation with booleans: Would males or females be true? It could lead to discrimination by officially stating in the business's software which gender is "seen" as "superior". Imagine how many people would love to be offended over such a nuance! Anyone else dealt with people who look for the least reason to take offense?



    About the hacks:
    Someone set us up a bomb, Fark Beans? These not too well thought out "hacks" don't work as well as you may think. All you have to do is disable inline styles for the page (via the Web Developer Toolbar in Firefox). Too bad for you. All your hack fixes are belong to us.



    Yes, we have an icon in our system that represents an account and looks like a man. The icon has a very similar shape to the generic male icons you see on bathroom doors. We have had some associates complain that it demonstrates a bias towards males. 
  • (cs) in reply to mjonhanson
    mjonhanson:
    Anonymous:
    It's sex. Not gender. Gender is "a distinction of words roughly answering to sex (gram). So, the gender of "La maison" is feminine. Whether a person is a man or a woman is his or her sex. Not his gender.


    Please give an example of gender in English, then.  Just curious, if you maybe creating a distinction without a difference that doesn't really apply to the English language.

    That's the point -- "gender" is a word that only properly applies to grammatical and lexical constructs, and for all practical purposes it has no application to modern English. It is a word in modern English, though, and has an application to discussion in modern English of grammatical and lexical constructs in other languages. Used as a substitute for "sex" in refering to the maleness or femaleness of an organism, it is a Bowdlerism.
  • bob (unregistered) in reply to Zulu_man

    In the ham radio '2-meter band' there are essentially 800 different channels [144,000 thru 148,000 step 5]. And the radios know it starts with "14" so you only have to type in 4 digits to get your freq; the last character is essentially a bit {0 or 5}.

    When radios started going sophisticated they started adding memories so you could recall your favorites with just a button push, usually 10 of them. Then "memory wars" set in. Mfrs went to 20 memories. Then 40. Then I saw one with 250 memories. And upward! You have to remember a sequential 4-digit number to save you typing a different specific 4-digit number? Thats an improvement?

    I know - you can store them in memories numbered similar to the freq - its, like, mnemonic! So if you actually want 147.135 [MHz] and before memories were invented you would have had to enter "7135", now with an "advanced" radio you could now store that frequency in memory number 7135. Then instead, all you'd have to do is enter "7135" and it would look up "7135" for you! Did microsoft invent this?


  • (cs) in reply to David Walker
    Anonymous:
    I'll bet half the forms that ask for your sex could remove it with no adverse effects.

    I always refuse to answer such questions unless there is a need. My doctor needs to know my gender and race. Potential dates need to know my gender.

    Race really gets on my nerves. I know many "black" men who have "white" wives - what are their children? Don't forget that slave owners often slept with female slaves to get more slaves, so many "black" men are less than 10% "black"

    African-American doesn't bother me, but my black friends hate it - They have never been to Africa, and have no intention of ever visiting. Why refer to them as if they had anything to do with the area. If an opportunity to go hunting in Africa came up they might go - same as the rest of us - but they are as likely to go to Africa as anyone else.

    Sorry about the rant, but I was raised such that gender/sex only matters in the case of potential mates, and race never matters.

  • (cs) in reply to mjonhanson
    mjonhanson:
    Please give an example of gender in English, then. 

    Unlike many languages, English doesn't indicate gender with suffix changes, just pronoun changes. Pronouns are of course used when the subject is obvious from context and you want to shorten things.

    In English male and female genders are reserved for living organisms that reproduce by male-female sex - and then only when the sex is known (Animals can be referred to as it when sex is unknown, if you don't know the sex of a human you cannot use it). Anything that is not living is referred to as it.

    However this is English, and the only rule in English that doesn't have an except clause is the one that says all rules in English must have an except clause.

    So: Ships are always female. It never applies to a ship, always she. He also never applies to ships.

    She sometimes refers to cars as well.

    I've heard of some objects referred to as he, but I cannot recall them off hand.

  • yv (unregistered) in reply to Andrew Magerman

    Grammatical gender really is just another way of saying 'noun and pronoun classes' as distinguished by the different inflections they have, and that the require in words syntactically related to them. In languages like German and French there are only three grammatical genders - feminine, masculine and neuter. Other languages may have anything from zero (for inflectionless languages) to many genders. So yeah, I guess that grammatical gender is only loosely at best, attached to sex.

    But sex itself isn't necessarily a simple thing. One may identify a person's genetic sex (ie. do they have XX or XY chromosomes) and distinguish that from their biological sex. (For example, some embryos/foetuses suffer from testosterone insensitivity, such that even though they may be genetically male, they don't develop the male primary and secondary sex characteristics and as a result can be born as (infertile) biological females.

    Add gender to the mix and it all becomes a nightmare - gender here being understood to be a category that is culturally conditioned or constructed rather than referring to sex in a simple manner. Different cultures have different ideas about what it means to be 'male' or 'female', and indeed some cultures allow for other 'genders' than these two.

    And we haven't even started to deal with transsexuality, and sex-reassignment surgery and the like yet ;)

  • (cs) in reply to Color Me Bad
    Anonymous:
    Anonymous:
    ParkinT:

    SEX is a verb,

    GENDER is a noun

    In addition, my RACE is the same as everyone else: <font size="5">HUMAN</font>

     

    Huh??  Please conjugate the alleged verb "sex"?

    And human (aka homo sapiens) is a species.  Personally, I'm part of the great rat race.;)



    <singing quality="badly">
    ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh ooooooooohhhhhhhoooooooohhhhhhh oooooooooohhhhh oooohh

    To the R tick-tock you don't stop...

    I wanna sex you up....
    </singing>





    [pedantic]
    Wow it's been a long time since i've dissected English, but it seemed to come right back to me at your example.
    The phrase "I wanna sex you up" does NOT contain 'sex' as a verb.
    The phrase "The worker expertly sexed the newly hatched chickens" does, however.

    Let's see why your example fails.
    "I wanna sex you up" isn't English, first of all.  Let's convert it into its canonical form, so that it is English.
    "I want to sex you up"
    Subject = "I"
    Verb = "want"
    Direct object of verb = "to sex" (This is an infinitive phrase)
    Object of infinitive phrase = "you"
    Adverb = "up" (how "to sex you")

    Compare this to the following (adapted from here: http://grammar.uoregon.edu/phrases/infinitiveP.html)
    I want to see you more.

    In this example, it is more clear that "to see" is not the verb.  Each Nth word in this sentence has the same part of speech as the Nth word in your example (once converted to English)

    [/pedantic]

     -dave-
  • (cs) in reply to campkev
    campkev:

    Anonymous:
    It's sex. Not gender. Gender is "a distinction of words roughly answering to sex (gram). So, the gender of "La maison" is feminine. Whether a person is a man or a woman is his or her sex. Not his gender.

    Absolutely right.

    And forte is pronounced fort not fortay.

    And "beg the question" means evade the question, not leads to the question.

    And it's "Just Deserts" not "Just Desserts"

    And the new millenium started January 1, 2001, not January 1, 2000.

    Any other pet peeves we should address.



    Actually "begging the question" refers to a logical falacy in which one side of a point is argued upon the assumption that the point has already been decided.

    For example, (and not because i am pro choice or pro life), a "pro life" argument that abortion was wrong because it was killing babies would be an example of begging the question, since the point under contention (whether or not abortion was "killing of children") is under contention, and cannot be assumed to have already been answered, and therefore cannot be used as a basis of argument to prove that point.  Therefore, that argument "begs the question".  Americans (sorry if i assume otherwise) seem to have lost sight of this as the meaning of that phrase.  I know I did before I actually looked it up.

    NOTE that i am not trying to start a political / abortion discussion, merely using a well known example of this fallacy.

         -dave-
  • (cs) in reply to vDave420
    vDave420:
    campkev:

    Anonymous:
    It's sex. Not gender. Gender is "a distinction of words roughly answering to sex (gram). So, the gender of "La maison" is feminine. Whether a person is a man or a woman is his or her sex. Not his gender.

    Absolutely right.

    And forte is pronounced fort not fortay.

    And "beg the question" means evade the question, not leads to the question.

    And it's "Just Deserts" not "Just Desserts"

    And the new millenium started January 1, 2001, not January 1, 2000.

    Any other pet peeves we should address.



    Actually "begging the question" refers to a logical falacy in which one side of a point is argued upon the assumption that the point has already been decided.

    For example, (and not because i am pro choice or pro life), a "pro life" argument that abortion was wrong because it was killing babies would be an example of begging the question, since the point under contention (whether or not abortion was "killing of children") is under contention, and cannot be assumed to have already been answered, and therefore cannot be used as a basis of argument to prove that point.  Therefore, that argument "begs the question".  Americans (sorry if i assume otherwise) seem to have lost sight of this as the meaning of that phrase.  I know I did before I actually looked it up.

    NOTE that i am not trying to start a political / abortion discussion, merely using a well known example of this fallacy.

         -dave-


    LOL Upon further reading of your post, I suppose your entry under "begs the question" could be interpreted as a weak form of what I stated.
    Nevertheless, I submit a source: http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/begging-the-question.html

    Certainly, "evading the question" can be done without "begging the question".

    Example: 
    Q: "How long can you live in sin?"
    A: "Nice Day!"

       -dave-
  • silverpie (unregistered) in reply to Manni
    Manni:

    I'm going to blow everyone's minds by givin' you all a little knowledge about why having 2 genders sometimes isn't enough.

    I was talking with a friend of mine who works at a U.S. government facility. Apparently they have 3 types of bathrooms you can use: men, women, and gender non-specific. There is such a thriving population of gender reassignments that they had to create a third type of bathroom because the men didn't want a guy with boobs in their bathroom, and the women didn't feel comfortable with the idea either. Scary.

    I've also seen some other facilities with three types: men, women, and family--the last is for parents accompanying little'uns of opposite sex.

  • (cs) in reply to vDave420

    Gender #3 is more than a theory. Check out the user feedback form for this website. Item 2 reads, "I am male / female / other"

  • (cs) in reply to Dave Nicolette

    Sorry, it reads: "I am female / male / other." I'm sure it made no sense at all the other way around.

  • guest (unregistered) in reply to Arancaytar

    Arancaytar:

    The customizable gender has something though. Just in case anyone ever comes up with a few new gender classifications...

    I used to like Hanson, you insensitive clod!!!!!

  • Bloke down the pub (unregistered) in reply to Manni
    Manni:

    I was talking with a friend of mine who works at a U.S. government facility. Apparently they have 3 types of bathrooms you can use: men, women, and gender non-specific.

    I thought the third gender was wheelchair users.  At least that's what you'd think by studying bathrooms.  Not that I do.  Since the restraining order.

     

  • Guest (unregistered) in reply to seebs

    Anonymous:
    unless you're boffing someone, it's generally none of your business.

    I don't know whether the correct response is "if you can't tell, it doens't matter" or "if it's got a hole, go for goal!".

  • (cs)

    Just looking at this old random WTF and I have actually recently had a situation where more than two genders became a problem.

    Its because the place I work now doesn't have documentation, or standards decided before they start coding.

    We make a test device that for reasons I won't go into stores the gender of the subject being tested, originally it just had MALE and FEMALE. When the data is downloaded the numerical answer is turned into a string, unknown values just output "Unknown".

    Then a customer wants a version with an unknown, that's easy, we'll just use an unused value.

    Then a customer wants a transgender option, an intergender option..

    I've got one here where I can select a little picture of a man, or a little picture of a transexual, or a giant question mark.

    Problem is that older versions of the download software don't know about the newer values and newer versions of the download software have no way to distinguish to what version of device its talking to.

    This results in some confusion when using the wrong download utility version with the wrong device version as unknown/not specified/transgender are often confused.

  • Valued Service (unregistered) in reply to Greg
    Greg:
    kipthegreat:
    Anonymous:
    I agree with Das's wife. Gender and sex are not the same thing.  
    ^^^^^^Hippie bullshit
    Not very eloquent, but well put. Of course, strictly speaking, they are not 100% synonymous, but in the current discussion, gender could according to my dictionary: definition 2: the state of being male or female. Check yours for an alternative definition...Anyway, back to the main issue: they should have added two tables instead of one. One table for sex, the other for gender.As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to recommend someone to turn this into law. Think of the possibilities: I'm sure everybody has received mail addressed to "Mr./Mrs.", and I'm also sure you thought that was ridiculous, but with sex/gender addressing, this possibility will become correct.One small step for man, but a great step for pre/post/non-op (wo)mankind.

    Or just don't track gender, and don't use gender specific terms.

    Track sex for the biological reasons, or not at all.

    Then I don't "offend" you, and I don't have to buy into your nonsense.

    I'm tired of being asked what gender I feel I am. Feelings are a ridiculous thing to judge off of. People are never mature enough to determine rational actions based off feelings.

  • JimTheJam (unregistered) in reply to Sam
    Sam:
    ... Huh?? Please conjugate the alleged verb "sex"?
    Sex Sexed Sexing

    "I have to sex the chicks" (as in baby chickens) "I am sexing the chicks" "I sexed the chicks yesterday"

  • xmtx (unregistered)

    Still reading all the articles backward in time. Still a huge pleasure to do this type of archeology.

    Even though the whole process is ridiculous. Having the need to redefine something like "Gender" is not so ridiculous nowadays :).

  • Saveliy (unregistered)

    Fast forward to 2017 and the gender config would have paid off! Assuming that this app was still around..

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