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Non-English-based programming languages

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21–24 of 24 posts

Re: Non-English-based programming languages

#21
I don't know if Microsoft still does it, but in the 90s they actually translated VBA in the Office pack to the local languages... I know it was included in the version before Office 95, but it may have been included in the 95 version as well.

I still have nightmares of the horrors of programming Excel 5.0 using the localized basic dialect. There's something fundamentally wrong about a non-English basic

Re: Non-English-based programming languages

#22
post #3

The English language is certainly one of the most flexible ones, on the positive side, and one of loosest ones, on the negative side. In English, even the most stupid thoughts sound right, just because of the language-culture itself. So, it would certainly be very exciting to have e.g. a perfect programming language, expressing itself in say Arabic or Hebrew; but, on the other side, computers and real intelligence (o…

I speak Hebrew, when I have to. That's not the kind of attitude I want towards a programming language.

Hebrew doesn't scale. Neither up nor down.

You can't dumb down Hebrew, it is already a very young language. And you can't extend it up to the modern world or complex concepts because of the Biblical Hebrew heritage, with stiff grammar and way-ambiguous writing system.

You'll have to reinvent it to use it, and good luck with that.

I also speak Russian, proper and street. When I have to. So much for that.

In my view they are all technical obstacles on the way of greater proliferation of ideas. Choose one language, whatever it will be. English's fine. Use it for everything that involves technical concepts. This is what most of the world today does, more or less, and it works out not that bad.

I'm not entirely sold on programming languages resembling human languages, but that's another matter altogether.

Re: Non-English-based programming languages

#23
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In English, even the most stupid thoughts sound right, just because of the language-culture itself. Well - that certainly doesn't sound right to me.

You got it all wrong: native English folks should be forbidden to vote on this comment. Anyway, believe me or not: you English ones are certainly the most ignorant in culture anyways; all of non english folks around the world would agree on this...

I disagree. Я несогласен. לא נכון.

Re: Non-English-based programming languages

#24
IIRC, Microsoft used to release localized versions of their IDEs (not the compilers themselves), but they weren't very popular as most people outside English-speaking countries perceived them to be somehow substandard. I believe they were also shipped after the English versions, so early adopters were forced into the 'merican way.
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