So, if you go on using "he", "him", "his" to describe a hypothetical person (and, given the audience here, probably a hypothetical programmer), you're demonstrating two things to me:
- You've got no regard for the subtle contribution you're making to the systematic psychic damage our society does to women, especially women in technical careers; or at least, you have less regard for it than you do for your sense of linguistic purity.
- You are happy to let a petty, self-important sense of correctness about language usage trump research and historical context.