Re: Can software have human attributes?
Fellow whirlers:
A corporate style guide reads:
"Avoid attributing human actions to inanimate objects, particularly
software. Example: Instead of 'The program sits and waits for the next
active result in the queue', write 'The program polls the queue for the next
active result.'"
This is another of those arbitrary prescriptive rules that people with a partial knowledge of grammar enjoy enforcing.
Rather than looking for an authority to cite, I suggest you take a common sense approach to the question. Ask yourself:
- what is wrong with personifying software? Does it mislead users or misrepresent what is happening?
- are readers likely to be confused by the personification?
- does using personification make the content clearer or express it in simpler language?
These are pretty much the same rules that I'd apply to any grammatical question. In general, if following a grammatical rule interfers with communication, then junk it. After all, the whole point of grammar is to aid communication, not hamper it.
In this case, I'd say that personification neither misrepresents nor confuses. And, while I'd probably avoid "sits" as unnecessary, "the program waits" is more immediately understandable than "the program polls."
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
"For this land that you leave has had too many martyrs,
Too many people who've perished in vain,
Too many ships slipping out of the harbours,
With cargoes that never came homeward again.
-Battlefield Band, "The Green and the Blue"
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