3 ms·

I wonder if users of other alphabets really use their alphabet to code in roman based languages. I mean, even the keywords are not transcribed, right? I guess t

by aatd86 2y ago

I wonder if users of other alphabets really use their alphabet to code in roman based languages. I mean, even the keywords are not transcribed, right? I guess they could probably prepend a v or V to their variable names? And especially if the code is to be shared with an international community? Wondering.

mardifoufs 2y ago
I've never seen that happen. English is my third language and the only time I've seen people talk about programming in other languages was either when referring to very old esoteric prog languages, or in English speaking forums ironically enough. It happens and I've seen code written in french for example but it's considered an anti pattern almost everywhere. I guess sometimes it makes sense for constants or context dependent variable names but again, still very rare.
- pjmlp 2y ago
  I was once brought into a PowerBuilder project, during the discovery phase due to my French skills more than anything else, and naturally was cheaper than getting an external translator. Everything except API calls was in French. I also have seen enough code during my lifetime with comments, and occasionally code as well, in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German.
  - mardifoufs 2y ago
    That's interesting! Was it an older code base? I know France also has a few "domestic" platforms, I just didn't think about it for some reason. It's also probably a lot more common in anything that intersects with BA or that encodes "real life" rules. The other exception is comments, I also still comment my code in french whenever I need to refer to a design choice or whatever since we discuss them in french usually! I think your first point is exactly why it's not as common as it used to be (imo, I don't have any stats to back this up!). It makes hiring people, or getting support a bit harder, especially if you need consultants for example. Plus the docs are very often in English anyways...
    - pjmlp 2y ago
      Yes, going back to the PowerBuilder vs Visual Basic vs Delphi glory days.

by aatd86 2y ago

mardifoufs 2y ago

I've never seen that happen. English is my third language and the only time I've seen people talk about programming in other languages was either when referring to very old esoteric prog languages, or in English speaking forums ironically enough. It happens and I've seen code written in french for example but it's considered an anti pattern almost everywhere. I guess sometimes it makes sense for constants or context dependent variable names but again, still very rare.

pjmlp 2y ago
I was once brought into a PowerBuilder project, during the discovery phase due to my French skills more than anything else, and naturally was cheaper than getting an external translator. Everything except API calls was in French. I also have seen enough code during my lifetime with comments, and occasionally code as well, in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German.
- mardifoufs 2y ago
  That's interesting! Was it an older code base? I know France also has a few "domestic" platforms, I just didn't think about it for some reason. It's also probably a lot more common in anything that intersects with BA or that encodes "real life" rules. The other exception is comments, I also still comment my code in french whenever I need to refer to a design choice or whatever since we discuss them in french usually! I think your first point is exactly why it's not as common as it used to be (imo, I don't have any stats to back this up!). It makes hiring people, or getting support a bit harder, especially if you need consultants for example. Plus the docs are very often in English anyways...
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    Yes, going back to the PowerBuilder vs Visual Basic vs Delphi glory days.