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The Tower of Babel. If the source code is proprietary or for education then it doesn't matter, but for the open source world it'd mean division onto multiple di

by ttt0 5y ago

The Tower of Babel. If the source code is proprietary or for education then it doesn't matter, but for the open source world it'd mean division onto multiple different languages where no one can understand and learn from each other. No one is going to learn 5 different alphabets and 12 different languages just so they can understand the source code.

hnfong 5y ago
Realistically, English will still the lingua franca for software in the short-term future, and I don't think anyone is saying we should change this. The thing is, for many people "interacting with the worldwide programming community" is not a thing they need. Imagine a computer class teacher in (for example) China teaching primary school children. Why should they need to learn English before starting to write "Hello world!" (or rather, 「你好世界」) In an alternate universe the lingua franca of programming languages is Chinese, would you still make the claim that it's better to take away choices and force ALL programmers into using the existing lingua franca regardless of their background? I'm guessing you'd be crying cultural imperialism because you can't teach your 6 year old kid programming in your native language.
- ttt0 5y ago
  I already addressed education. > If the source code is proprietary or for education then it doesn't matter I'm not forcing you to speak and teach children in English. My country actually was under cultural imperialism and people back then weren't allowed to speak or learn in our native language. And you make it sound like a joke, but whatever.
Symbiote 5y ago
There is already open source software written in other languages. Sometimes identifiers and comments are transliterated into ASCII, sometimes they remain in the original script. Of course, they won't get many contributions from English speakers. They will get more contributions from speakers of that language. That decision is for the project to make, not others to impose.
- account42 5y ago
  > They will get more contributions from speakers of that language. Will they?
8note 5y ago
That's also a good reason to standardize all open source code in C.

by ttt0 5y ago

hnfong 5y ago

Realistically, English will still the lingua franca for software in the short-term future, and I don't think anyone is saying we should change this. The thing is, for many people "interacting with the worldwide programming community" is not a thing they need. Imagine a computer class teacher in (for example) China teaching primary school children. Why should they need to learn English before starting to write "Hello world!" (or rather, 「你好世界」) In an alternate universe the lingua franca of programming languages is Chinese, would you still make the claim that it's better to take away choices and force ALL programmers into using the existing lingua franca regardless of their background? I'm guessing you'd be crying cultural imperialism because you can't teach your 6 year old kid programming in your native language.

ttt0 5y ago
I already addressed education. > If the source code is proprietary or for education then it doesn't matter I'm not forcing you to speak and teach children in English. My country actually was under cultural imperialism and people back then weren't allowed to speak or learn in our native language. And you make it sound like a joke, but whatever.

Symbiote 5y ago

There is already open source software written in other languages. Sometimes identifiers and comments are transliterated into ASCII, sometimes they remain in the original script. Of course, they won't get many contributions from English speakers. They will get more contributions from speakers of that language. That decision is for the project to make, not others to impose.

account42 5y ago
> They will get more contributions from speakers of that language. Will they?

8note 5y ago

That's also a good reason to standardize all open source code in C.