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> I'm sure whole different paradigms may be possible in different scripts. This is like Sapir–Whorf for programming languages. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L

> I'm sure whole different paradigms may be possible in different scripts. This is like Sapir–Whorf for programming languages. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity) I'm skeptical that programming languages in other scripts would "discover" new programming paradigms inaccessible to languages written with the latin alphabet. Programming languages hardly follow any rules of english grammar, despite most of them being in English.

semi-extrinsic 10y ago
I'm also skeptical. The "strong" claims of Whorfianism, that testable things like color perception depend on ones language, have mostly been falsified. I see no reason why programming of computers would be different. Are some languages structured such that it's easier for its native speakers are better at certain programming tasks? Sure, that's plausible. I can imagine that e.g. German programmers would be better at keeping two-page goto-riddled DO loops in their heads. But would Spanish programmers find it impossible? Hardly.
- coldtea 10y ago
  >I'm also skeptical. The "strong" claims of Whorfianism, that testable things like color perception depend on ones language, have mostly been falsified. That's not entirely settled, but even so, those to me are the least interesting (and least expected to be true) aspects of Whorfianism. The social aspects of language influence are much more interesting. That said, I don't see programming languages in other, err, languages discovering any novel ways of programming. That's mostly because in the end they always should just translate to the underlying CPU model and CS concepts, and those are math, they don't change culturally.
  - semi-extrinsic 10y ago
    > The social aspects of language influence are much more interesting. Sure, but it's pretty much impossible to make a falsifiable hypothesis in this area that can actually be (ethically) tested. Like, how do you separate the effect of having Japanese as your primary language from the effect of growing up in a Japanese culture (whether actually in Japan or not)? > [CS concepts] are math, they don't change culturally Agree.
    - coldtea 10y ago
      >Like, how do you separate the effect of having Japanese as your primary language from the effect of growing up in a Japanese culture (whether actually in Japan or not)? I guess by using people from bilingual societies, who speak one or the other language within the same culture.

semi-extrinsic 10y ago

I'm also skeptical. The "strong" claims of Whorfianism, that testable things like color perception depend on ones language, have mostly been falsified. I see no reason why programming of computers would be different. Are some languages structured such that it's easier for its native speakers are better at certain programming tasks? Sure, that's plausible. I can imagine that e.g. German programmers would be better at keeping two-page goto-riddled DO loops in their heads. But would Spanish programmers find it impossible? Hardly.

coldtea 10y ago
>I'm also skeptical. The "strong" claims of Whorfianism, that testable things like color perception depend on ones language, have mostly been falsified. That's not entirely settled, but even so, those to me are the least interesting (and least expected to be true) aspects of Whorfianism. The social aspects of language influence are much more interesting. That said, I don't see programming languages in other, err, languages discovering any novel ways of programming. That's mostly because in the end they always should just translate to the underlying CPU model and CS concepts, and those are math, they don't change culturally.
- semi-extrinsic 10y ago
  > The social aspects of language influence are much more interesting. Sure, but it's pretty much impossible to make a falsifiable hypothesis in this area that can actually be (ethically) tested. Like, how do you separate the effect of having Japanese as your primary language from the effect of growing up in a Japanese culture (whether actually in Japan or not)? > [CS concepts] are math, they don't change culturally Agree.
  - coldtea 10y ago
    >Like, how do you separate the effect of having Japanese as your primary language from the effect of growing up in a Japanese culture (whether actually in Japan or not)? I guess by using people from bilingual societies, who speak one or the other language within the same culture.