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Bad idea. It's bad for collaboration and it looks comic (especially when you need to use words like "HTTP", "POST" near with local language words). We in Russia

Bad idea. It's bad for collaboration and it looks comic (especially when you need to use words like "HTTP", "POST" near with local language words). We in Russia have already good example of software written in "local language" - "1S". For developers in Russia it's reference of code smell.

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
Yep. And programming languages, while they use English keywords, are not English. They are languages in their own right, and "translating" words is not a good idea, because that's creating a new language.
- poblano 14y ago
  I agree this is probably a bad idea, but I still think the basic problem it's trying to solve is a real one. A less hack-y solution might be for new languages to start incorporating more languages in their choices of keywords and class names. Suppose someone were designing a new language (let's call it Foolang), and these were some of the keywords: * publico, privado, protegido (access specifiers in Spanish) * eetha/akhra (if/else in Arabic) * zhen/jia (true/false in Mandarin) I think this would be an interesting experiment. It would have to be a compelling language in its own right though.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
    I agree that it's a basic problem. There's a language using Japanese keywords out there: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind and a few others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-English-based_programming_languages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-English-based_programming_l... Still, a language monoculture is more convenient for most programmers. As an English-speaking programmer, I'd hate to have to maintain, say, Chinese code.
  - zokier 14y ago
    I think the language constructs/keywords are the "easy" part. But how do you translate identifiers, comments and other "textual" content automatically?
    - poblano 14y ago
      You're right. There isn't really an easy solution to this.

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago

Yep. And programming languages, while they use English keywords, are not English. They are languages in their own right, and "translating" words is not a good idea, because that's creating a new language.

poblano 14y ago
I agree this is probably a bad idea, but I still think the basic problem it's trying to solve is a real one. A less hack-y solution might be for new languages to start incorporating more languages in their choices of keywords and class names. Suppose someone were designing a new language (let's call it Foolang), and these were some of the keywords: * publico, privado, protegido (access specifiers in Spanish) * eetha/akhra (if/else in Arabic) * zhen/jia (true/false in Mandarin) I think this would be an interesting experiment. It would have to be a compelling language in its own right though.
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
  I agree that it's a basic problem. There's a language using Japanese keywords out there: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind and a few others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-English-based_programming_languages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-English-based_programming_l... Still, a language monoculture is more convenient for most programmers. As an English-speaking programmer, I'd hate to have to maintain, say, Chinese code.
- zokier 14y ago
  I think the language constructs/keywords are the "easy" part. But how do you translate identifiers, comments and other "textual" content automatically?
  - poblano 14y ago
    You're right. There isn't really an easy solution to this.