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A comment on Non-English-based programming languages.

Re:Non-English-based programming languages by msoad on Monday September 02, 2013 @02:06PM (#6316308)
When I write code, it's code. I don't read it like a human readable text. Because of that, I don't really care what it reads when I try to read it as a human readable text.

For example I don't even think about what it would mean in English if I write

     while(true){ i++; if(i>100) break; }
I'm curious if native English speakers look at code as real English text sometimes? It should be funny, because when I translate my code to my native language(word-by-word) it's just meaningless and funny.
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Re:Non-English-based programming languages by crazygringo on Monday September 02, 2013 @02:17PM (#6316360)
For things like "while", "do", "return", "public", "private" I definitely think of it as "real English text".

For things like "for", "wend" (while-end), "class", "switch", "main", they're divorced enough from any real English meaning that I just think of them as arbitrary coding words.

So, it's kind of both, at least for me.

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Re:Non-English-based programming languages by angersock on Monday September 02, 2013 @03:20PM (#6316645)
esac anyone? :P
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Re:Non-English-based programming languages by icebraining on Monday September 02, 2013 @06:38PM (#6317594)
fi
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Re:Non-English-based programming languages by iano on Monday September 02, 2013 @02:17PM (#6316359)
Maybe it depends on the language? I could see something like this in python:

  if not callable(something): make_callable(something)
Which can (sortof) be read off in English.
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Re:Non-English-based programming languages by eCa on Monday September 02, 2013 @03:29PM (#6316679)
I don't really understand what you mean with "real English text". I can't separate keywords from their true meaning, and it's much easier for me to understand the purpose of a keyword if its purpose matches its name.

Every statement has a meaning, and every block is a story. If it wasn't readable we could just as well use BANCstar [1].

(Btw, I absolutely hate that Microsoft translates Excel formulas (and so on) in localized versions. I simply cannot program in my native language: I basically translate back to English mentally.)

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6311717

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