4 ms·

Programming and English a natural match, no. Programming and a global language, or the global language as a natural match, maybe. There's nothing super special

Programming and English a natural match, no. Programming and a global language, or the global language as a natural match, maybe. There's nothing super special within English itself that makes it particularly well suited for programming, but the fact that it's the global language of business, tourism, air travel, diplomacy, etc. makes a good case for it. English has far, far more non-native speakers than any other language.

seek3r 6y ago
Taking aside the difficulty of learning the language, which language would be a good replacement? I don’t mean it to be provocative, I’m genuinely curious.
- TulliusCicero 6y ago
  You're asking the wrong person. I don't know that much about languages, and from what I do know, there isn't really an obviously better language, other than maybe a constructed one like Esperanto (but then you get into the whole thing where it's hard to go off a language with so few native speakers).
browsergap 6y ago
That's not actually true tho. Chinese Mandarin has ~ the same number of speakers as all English speakers, it's just your Englo-centric bias that makes you see the world in your skewed way, where English is the center of everything, which is exactly what I'm railing against (in English no less)! It does have international currency, but that's blurrier than you might think. French and Arabic both have enormous regional currency in EMEA. It's not the only candidate. Spanish in South America. There's plenty of places where English is few and far between (try Japan). But the point is, even if you can say it's global (which it's not if you're taking a truly global perspective and thinking you can "go anywhere and speak English and you'll be operating fine!"), so what? There's huge populations of people who are not speaking English and they're just as good programmers, so why not have programming languages arising from their language? It's a possibility. It's a historical accident that English with coding, that's all.
- TulliusCicero 6y ago
  > where English is the center of everything, which is exactly what I'm railing against (in English no less)! Nah. English isn't the center of everything, but it's already in lots of places, and that momentum is hard to stop. > Chinese Mandarin has ~ the same number of speakers as all English speakers I said non-native speakers. Look at the distribution too. Outside of China/HK/Taiwan, the number of people who are proficient in Chinese is very limited, especially if you're looking at those outside of the Chinese diaspora. Whereas tons of countries have significant numbers of English speakers. Just look at how many countries count English as an official or de facto national language: there are dozens of them. > French and Arabic both have enormous regional currency in EMEA. Eh, kinda, kinda not. Especially within Europe, French is a very distant second to English in terms of second language usage. > But the point is, even if you can say it's global (which it's not if you're taking a truly global perspective and thinking you can "go anywhere and speak English and you'll be operating fine!") By this metric, there's never been a global language, and there won't be one for decades at a minimum. You're just using a different definition of "global language" compared to everyone else worth an absurdly high bar. Great for you if you wanna play in your own playground, but back in realityland "global language" means something different.
  - browsergap 6y ago
    Wow, girl, you're really desperate to prove this. I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you I was just contradicting you, I know that must be hard. So... you're in realityland and I'm in fantasy land, right? Okay, I got it. You have a nice day :) You might wanna get out of your English centric bubble tho. See the world. Travel.... big world out there, plenty of room for different ideas, experiences and languages. Then, you'll have some experience to back up your Wikipedia facts. ¯\_( ツ)_/¯ I don't know, could work, right? hehe :) ;p xx

seek3r 6y ago

Taking aside the difficulty of learning the language, which language would be a good replacement? I don’t mean it to be provocative, I’m genuinely curious.

TulliusCicero 6y ago
You're asking the wrong person. I don't know that much about languages, and from what I do know, there isn't really an obviously better language, other than maybe a constructed one like Esperanto (but then you get into the whole thing where it's hard to go off a language with so few native speakers).

browsergap 6y ago

That's not actually true tho. Chinese Mandarin has ~ the same number of speakers as all English speakers, it's just your Englo-centric bias that makes you see the world in your skewed way, where English is the center of everything, which is exactly what I'm railing against (in English no less)! It does have international currency, but that's blurrier than you might think. French and Arabic both have enormous regional currency in EMEA. It's not the only candidate. Spanish in South America. There's plenty of places where English is few and far between (try Japan). But the point is, even if you can say it's global (which it's not if you're taking a truly global perspective and thinking you can "go anywhere and speak English and you'll be operating fine!"), so what? There's huge populations of people who are not speaking English and they're just as good programmers, so why not have programming languages arising from their language? It's a possibility. It's a historical accident that English with coding, that's all.

TulliusCicero 6y ago
> where English is the center of everything, which is exactly what I'm railing against (in English no less)! Nah. English isn't the center of everything, but it's already in lots of places, and that momentum is hard to stop. > Chinese Mandarin has ~ the same number of speakers as all English speakers I said non-native speakers. Look at the distribution too. Outside of China/HK/Taiwan, the number of people who are proficient in Chinese is very limited, especially if you're looking at those outside of the Chinese diaspora. Whereas tons of countries have significant numbers of English speakers. Just look at how many countries count English as an official or de facto national language: there are dozens of them. > French and Arabic both have enormous regional currency in EMEA. Eh, kinda, kinda not. Especially within Europe, French is a very distant second to English in terms of second language usage. > But the point is, even if you can say it's global (which it's not if you're taking a truly global perspective and thinking you can "go anywhere and speak English and you'll be operating fine!") By this metric, there's never been a global language, and there won't be one for decades at a minimum. You're just using a different definition of "global language" compared to everyone else worth an absurdly high bar. Great for you if you wanna play in your own playground, but back in realityland "global language" means something different.
- browsergap 6y ago
  Wow, girl, you're really desperate to prove this. I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you I was just contradicting you, I know that must be hard. So... you're in realityland and I'm in fantasy land, right? Okay, I got it. You have a nice day :) You might wanna get out of your English centric bubble tho. See the world. Travel.... big world out there, plenty of room for different ideas, experiences and languages. Then, you'll have some experience to back up your Wikipedia facts. ¯\_( ツ)_/¯ I don't know, could work, right? hehe :) ;p xx