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This sounds awesome. I've contemplated programming in Arabic. I figured that if Arabic as a language is much more expressive and concise than English in normal

This sounds awesome. I've contemplated programming in Arabic. I figured that if Arabic as a language is much more expressive and concise than English in normal modes of communication then the advantages would cross over into programming languages. However, as you said, direct syntax translation is ineffective. Perhaps, programming semantics need to change to match the effectiveness of the language or perhaps, and I hate use this term, a new paradigm is needed.

mahmud 14y ago
This is actually a myth. Arabic is not more or less "expressive" than any other language. It's just language communities evolve richer vocabularies for their subjects of interest/specialization. Arabic saw feverish interest in philosophy and abstract thought around the time of the Islamic Caliphates spanning almost a thousand years. But other languages evolved similar, even richer philosophical traditions -- I think the growth of English is unparalleled in human history! This probably doesn't have a bassis in any established linguistic theory, it's just my own "hunch", but I think this community specialziation (DSL-ization?) of languages is real enough (see the persistent myth that Inuits have tens of words for snow. We expect them to, because snow is their "thing".) We don't need to "adapt" programming languages theory to Arabic, as the foundations are meta-linguistic and presentable in any human language. What we need is a native Arabic programming languages community that puts already codified technical terms into currency.
- ramseynasser 14y ago
  True, but you can stretch out Arabic symbols for perfect symmetry without a lot of stupid whitespace! Check it out http://twitpic.com/bnpjvy http://twitpic.com/bnpjvy
  - mahmud 14y ago
    Isn't that antithetical to the Lisp aesthetic? it breaks code contours. Lisp code is curvy ;-)
eru 14y ago
> I figured that if Arabic as a language is much more expressive and concise than English in normal modes of communication then the advantages would cross over into programming languages. We do not programme in English either.

mahmud 14y ago

This is actually a myth. Arabic is not more or less "expressive" than any other language. It's just language communities evolve richer vocabularies for their subjects of interest/specialization. Arabic saw feverish interest in philosophy and abstract thought around the time of the Islamic Caliphates spanning almost a thousand years. But other languages evolved similar, even richer philosophical traditions -- I think the growth of English is unparalleled in human history! This probably doesn't have a bassis in any established linguistic theory, it's just my own "hunch", but I think this community specialziation (DSL-ization?) of languages is real enough (see the persistent myth that Inuits have tens of words for snow. We expect them to, because snow is their "thing".) We don't need to "adapt" programming languages theory to Arabic, as the foundations are meta-linguistic and presentable in any human language. What we need is a native Arabic programming languages community that puts already codified technical terms into currency.

ramseynasser 14y ago
True, but you can stretch out Arabic symbols for perfect symmetry without a lot of stupid whitespace! Check it out http://twitpic.com/bnpjvy http://twitpic.com/bnpjvy
- mahmud 14y ago
  Isn't that antithetical to the Lisp aesthetic? it breaks code contours. Lisp code is curvy ;-)

eru 14y ago

> I figured that if Arabic as a language is much more expressive and concise than English in normal modes of communication then the advantages would cross over into programming languages. We do not programme in English either.