pronouns - Referring to some attribute of an inanimate object — use "who's"?


This came up in describing an input to a function:



A handle to the daemon who's name is desired.



(Daemon is a type of process on a system.)


Somehow, "who's" just doesn't seem right because it's not a who, but a what. Could one say "... the daemon what's name is desired"?



Answer



It is wrong, but not because a daemon is a thing rather than a person — "who's" doesn't indicate possession, it's a contraction of "who is". You need whose, which is a possessive pronoun and adjective, like his, hers, etc. So, just like you'd say "his name", you'd say "whose name", or "its name".


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