Re: Must programming languages be English ?

[David Favro <lua@...>]

On 04/13/2013 07:46 PM, Michael Richter wrote:
> The assumption that "English is the language of software" is one
> that's going to bite people in the posterior sometime.

For the moment however, it is the de facto language of IT, and denying
it does non-English speakers a disservice (by encouraging them not to
learn it).  It's the language of IETF RFCs, of academic CS papers, of
international conferences, of software mailing-lists.  Here in Viet Nam,
some IT firms require that only English be spoken in the workplace, with
fines for even a word of Vietnamese, and of course they offer free
English instruction to their employees.

Having technical terms in one's native language is fine, but if you want
to work seriously as a programmer, you're at a huge disadvantage if you
can't also read English.  You might find translations of RFCs and other
standards but there's no guarantee that they'll be accurate, and who
will translate the LKML for you, the Lua mailing list, technical papers,
etc.?

-- David