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Can someone explain why authors do this?
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this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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It's a more easily readable drop in for A and B. And it being convention helps remove one unfamiliar element from a new topic.
Not only more readable than A and B but I would argue it's also easier to remember who did what a few sentences or paragraphs earlier since Alice and Bob invoke slightly less generic mental images than A and B. For example one is a woman and the other one is a man, maybe even some person or character you know.
And now that I'm thinking about it, the different gender also makes it easier to keep track of who does what because different pronouns are used (at least in English and many other languages).
If you ever go to r/relationship_advice and read posts where their friend T did S with P and then A (23 F) got into with G, then yeah...Alice and Bob suddenly makes a lot of sense.
"This B needs a C in her A"
Old guy moment here. . .why the fuck is the camera moving all over in the place in that video? Literally unwatchable to me.
Oh, I didn't even notice. Probably some artistic stuff, but I would prefer if it was more stable.
I guess it's cause they're on a cruise ship
Fun fact: the problem this is a solution to is known as the gay spock problem
I tried to look this up and while there were many many results, none of them seemed to really fit with OP’s question, so would you kindly tell us more about the gay Spock problem?
The gay spock problem is when you have two characters interacting who have the same pronouns, and it gets confusing. For example,
Who's the one speaking? Kirk or Spock?
Likewise, if Alice and Barbara or Adam and Bob are your two example people, you'll run into the gay spock problem.
Thank you for your explanation. Google gave me a lot of insight into a lot of things and none had to do with this problem. :D
I'm afraid I'm not following. The solution to what?
Edit: Sorry, I misread your comment.
Took me a few reads
this, but doubly so with Eve. You'll notice that we often skip over Cindy and Dave and go right to Eve, so often that I don't even know off the top of my head whether Charlie and Deandra are the conventional names for persons 3 and 4 in this construct. That's because this construct is used a lot when talking about secure communications and the convention is that "evil" "eavesdropping" Eve is the person trying to destroy, intercept or alter the communication between Alice and Bob. Her role is built into her name.