Re:Languages: Why we must save dying tongues (2014)
by DonaldFisk on Sunday July 03, 2016 @06:48PM
(#12027987)
> The practicalities of PLs aren't at all like spoken natural languages. For one thing, all computers can run any PL with little effort.
But not with equal effort. Machines have been developed to run specific languages (Burroughs mainframes - Algol 60; Lisp Machines - Lisp), and languages have been developed to run on specific machines (C - PDP-11).
Re:Languages: Why we must save dying tongues (2014)
by mablap on Sunday July 03, 2016 @04:22PM
(#12027464)
For one thing, all computers can run any PL with little effort.
Re:Languages: Why we must save dying tongues (2014)
by Chris2048 on Monday July 04, 2016 @08:24AM
(#12030273)
I suppose - although a language would probably die out if children couldn't learn it - or the unlearnable parts in any case.
The clause "with little effort" is not counteracted though - for a computer this represents a short download-and-install of a compiler/interpreter.
Even writing a compiler may take the same amount of time it takes to learn a language from scratch.
The practicalities of PLs aren't at all like spoken natural languages. For one thing, all computers can run any PL with little effort.
Secondly:
> Are you willing to stop speaking, reading, thinking, writing in English and use Mandarin?
What the OP thinks is irrelevant, it's whether this would be desirable or not. It would also not be a "do this now" thing and more of "in years to come, humanity will do this".
I think mankind will one day set foot on mars, and this effort will be a good thing - this does not mean I should be willing to be put on a rocket today.