Re: way-OT: regularity of german v. english [was: Re: OT - Programming Languages w/o English Syntax]
On Tue, Oct 28, 2003 at 10:49:02AM +0100, Johannes Zarl wrote:
Content-Description: signed data
> On Tuesday 28 October 2003 05:33, Tom wrote:
> > On Mon, Oct 27, 2003 at 11:20:36PM -0500, Nori Heikkinen wrote:
> > > the distinction that's being missed here is that people don't code in
> > > english, people use english words as symbols in their code. there's a
> > > huge difference.
> >
> > Random webpage I have open...
> > GtkTreeStore* gtk_tree_store_new (gint n_columns,
> > ...);
> >
> > there is some language content here, some internal linguistic structure.
> > If they were purely logical constructs we'd be as likely to see:
> >
> > BrownBear* gtk_brownbear_drip (fishnet stars);
> >
> > as
> >
> > y=f(x)
> > w=u(t)
> >
> > both convey the same meaning to us. There's a bit more going on there.
>
> Just to add my opinion as german speaking programmer: I use english for
> programming because its the only language I can be sure every other
> programmer understands. This just ensures that I can share my code with
> others. As far as small programs and scripts are concerned I just use
> english for them because I am used to it..
When I lived in the Netherlands, I noticed a number of programmers
writing in Dutch. They claimed it pretty well solved the reserved-word
problem, since all the language's reserved words were in English.
Perhaps, for English-speakers (like me) we should design our languages
so that sll the keywords are in Dutch, so we never have to worry
about accidentally using a keyword as an identifier?
-- hendrik
>
> Johannes
> --
> "More than machinery we need humanity" -- Charlie Chaplin, The Great
> Dictator
Reply to: