Re: Native language versions

Peter J. Holzer <hjp-usenet2@xxxxxx> wrote:
: > Ian <nisbeti@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
: > : Has anyone tried translating the command set of Perl into other
: > : languages (French, Japanese, Arabic etc.), so that native speakers do
: > : not need to learn any English in order to program, then writing a
: > : suitable compiler?

: In perl you don't need a separate compiler for that: You can write a
: filter module. See Lingua::Romana::Perligata for a filter module which
: implements Latin syntax (including declensions and
: position-independence) for Perl.

Which is a nice thing to have, but have we ever heard that the Vatican
uses this module extensively?

: > No, this approach is completely impractical and not even of any academic
: > interest.

: I don't think this would be impractical at all. I don't know Japanese or
: Arabic, but I don't think parsing a computer language based on Japanese
: or Arabic grammar would be harder than parsing Perl (indeed parsing Perl
: is quite hard - "only perl can parse Perl" as the saying goes). At least
: your examples don't look hard to me.

No, that's right. You _can_ do it, but is it practical? Is it still Perl?
I wonder how to maintain a claim that two languages are equal (perhaps
better: equivalent) if both their grammars and lexica differ substantially?

: There are probably a lot more people who program Excel than any other
: programming language. There are of course other factors which make Excel
: attractive to non-programmers (not least that it doesn't *look* like a
: programming language), but I wonder whether translating the function
: names doesn't contribute to its popularity. There is a surprising number
: of people who don't understand basic English (even though they learned
: it in school).

While I stay with you that this feature may have contributed to the popularity
of Excel, I've seen a number of cases where a file with scripts written in the
German version wouldn't execute on the English version Excel. This was quite
a few years ago, though, maybe things have changed.

Oliver.
--
Dr. Oliver Corff e-mail: corff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

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