Re:قلب: a non-ASCII programming language written in Arabic
by bradhe on Friday October 25, 2019 @12:53PM
(#21356859)
Perhaps we should try asking someone who actually speaks, reads, and writes Arabic how big of a barrier this is before we jump to conclusions...
Re:قلب: a non-ASCII programming language written in Arabic
by ufmace on Friday October 25, 2019 @01:33PM
(#21357281)
Would be good, trouble is, where would we ask such a thing? Nobody would be on HN unless they were fluent enough in English to find it interesting to browse English comments and discussions. Presumably there are some Arabic-only tech forums out there somewhere for people who want to talk about technical things but don't feel comfortable enough with English. But then I suppose there's probably a few of those, all with different cultures, and the result would depend on the culture of that board.
Re:قلب: a non-ASCII programming language written in Arabic
by saalweachter on Friday October 25, 2019 @01:46PM
(#21357421)
I mean, the existence of the article implies that at least one person who speaks, reads and writes Arabic thought there was a problem (even if they also knew both English and English-based programming languages).
But again, while I can't speak from the Arabic speaker -> "English" PL direction, I'm perfectly capable of speaking for the English speaker -> "Arabic" PL direction.
You're got three barriers between the learner and the language: unknown keywords, unfamiliar letters, and the wrong LTR/RTL order.
It all adds up to where, boy, it would be intimidating for me to learn this language, as someone who already knows how to program. Doesn't that imply it would be equally intimidating for someone who only speaks Arabic to learn C?