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Non-English-based programming languages

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Re: Non-English-based programming languages

#12

Post by highwise »

But I think there is only one programming environment that supports multiple natural languages. Lucio's (a friend of mine ) turtleacademy.com.

The turtle academy is a programming environment with lessons for teaching kids logo.

For professional programming, a non-english programming language is just a curiosity, non of them has ever gained global traction nor will probably gain.

For kids, for learning, supporting multiple languages is a must.

English: http://turtleacademy.com/lang/en

Russian: http://turtleacademy.com/lang/ru

Hebrew : http://turtleacademy.com/lang/he

Spanish: http://turtleacademy.com/lang/es

Chinese: http://turtleacademy.com/lang/zh

And we are looking for volunteers to translate to further languages.

Re: Non-English-based programming languages

#13

Post by eCa »

rett12 wrote: post #4

> Perl – While Perl's keywords and function names are generally in English, it allows modification of its parser to modify the input language, such as in Damian Conway's Lingua::Romana::Perligata module, which allows programs to be written in Latin or his Lingua::tlhInganHol::yIghun Perl language in Klingon. They do not just change the keywords but also the grammar to match the language. That's impressive

As an example just how far they go, the statement:

clavis hashus nominamentum da.

Is equivalent to [1]:

@keys = keys %hash;

And in Klingon Perl [2]:

De'pu'wI' bIH yInob!

Is equivalent to:

%data = @_;

[1] https://metacpan.org/module/DCONWAY/Lingua-Romana-Perligata-...

[2] https://metacpan.org/module/Lingua::tlhInganHol::yIghun

Re: Non-English-based programming languages

#14

Post by [deleted] »

maw wrote: post #8
guhemama2 wrote: post #3

My rather simplistic view: as a native Portuguese speaker, I strongly refute the idea of programming languages (and even coding) in a language other than English. Besides the obvious reasons (globalized world, outsourcing, multinational corporations, etc), English is much less expressive than the Romance languages [1], which makes it a better formal language. 1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages

I think you'd have a very difficult time convincing a serious linguist that English is less expressive than the Romance languages.

[deleted]

Re: Non-English-based programming languages

#15

Post by reginaldjcooper »

maw wrote: post #8
guhemama2 wrote: post #3

My rather simplistic view: as a native Portuguese speaker, I strongly refute the idea of programming languages (and even coding) in a language other than English. Besides the obvious reasons (globalized world, outsourcing, multinational corporations, etc), English is much less expressive than the Romance languages [1], which makes it a better formal language. 1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages

I think you'd have a very difficult time convincing a serious linguist that English is less expressive than the Romance languages.

Especially because when English is less expressive than a Romance language, we steal those words from the Romance language until we're at least as expressive.

Re: Non-English-based programming languages

#16

Post by lucasrp »

Create a non-English based programming language is very different from translating a english programming language. Different languages have different ways to express time, state, etc. If one translates a english programming language, it will be a translated English based programming language (not a Non-English base...)

I`m a native portuguese speaker, for example. In portuguese, we "break" the "to be" verb in two forms: The "ser" verb to denominate an immutable state like "The sun is hot" and a "estar" verb to denominate a transitory state "It is hot today".

My guess is that, if programming languages were made since the beginning with a language like that, the coding world would be a more pleasant place today. Things like differenciate mutable/immutable state would be much more natural.

So, it`s possible even to create a Non-English based programming language IN English. Russian, japanese, etc. languages have their peculiarities, that could shape coding very different than what it is today.

Ruby it`s a nice example of it. Just google about the subject, and found this material (http://blog.new-bamboo.co.uk/2010/12/17/learning-japanese-th...)

Any rubyist-japanese-speaker who would like to give some thoughts on the subject?

Re: Non-English-based programming languages

#17

Post by lucasrp »

reginaldjcooper wrote: post #15
maw wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you'd have a very difficult time convincing a serious linguist that English is less expressive than the Romance languages.

Especially because when English is less expressive than a Romance language, we steal those words from the Romance language until we're at least as expressive.

But it`s much easier to create new words in english. Like transform a verb in a noum, or adjective, etc

I`m a native portuguese speaker, and think that romantic languages can be more "emotional" than english. But its amazing how a new idea can be expressed so easilly in English.

Re: Non-English-based programming languages

#18

Post by evincarofautumn »

Sagat wrote: post #11

I don't understand the urge to create a new language to make a statement instead of trying to improve on what already exists.

Creating a language to make a statement is probably a bad idea, but there are plenty of other valid reasons to create something new:

• You want to learn how languages work.

• You have a problem which is difficult to solve in other languages but easy in yours.

• You want to combine features that have never been combined before, to see if their interaction creates something of value.

Re: Non-English-based programming languages

#19

Post by pshc »

An ambition of mine is a programming language where the program structure is decoupled from its visual/textual appearance (model-view separation). One nice result of this scheme is, for example, you could work on a program in English and another person could collaborate on the exact same source in French.

Although I suspect that if this did get written and translated around a lot, many non-English speakers would still pick the English surface syntax due to network effects...

(Edited for clarity)

Re: Non-English-based programming languages

#20

Post by [deleted] »

lucasrp wrote: post #16

Create a non-English based programming language is very different from translating a english programming language. Different languages have different ways to express time, state, etc. If one translates a english programming language, it will be a translated English based programming language (not a Non-English base...) I`m a native portuguese speaker, for example. In portuguese, we "break" the "to be" verb in two for…

[deleted]
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