A Programmer's Bill of Rights
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To be able to instruct a computer in their own native language
- Have variables, field names, and attributes in their own native language
- Have the programming lexemes semantically significant in their own language
- Have programmatic components interrelated in a manner significant in their own language
- Not to have to learn a foreign language to get by
To be able to share their work with other people without loss of expressivity or meaning
So said Dr. Diarmuid J. Pigott in 2007. And yet the hegemony of the English language, especially in Information Technology, reigns. In the wider political world we decry artificial distinctions based on gender and skin colour and yet don't even acknowledge, let alone address, the distinction based on whether one can read, write and speak English.
Top comments (2)
There is no one banning this things. If you and other pepole that you work with agree on using let's say Japanese. You can do this but who will write parsers to read your code. Docs are usualy written in English but it's even encouraged to translate them. There is a lot tutorials written in another languages but programming languages are constantly evolving and changing so we cant possibly keep them all up to date.
Programming evolved in western English speaking society so we ingerited this language. Many of us know that learning another language as an adult is extremely hard but possible.
Remember even most inclusive communities still have a barrier to entry. We try to cut as many of those but its hard to keep maintenance over dozens of languages in docs. Even without it pepole have plenty to do. And for newcommers that dont know language that well they can learn but helping translating those docs and guides with help of those who are proficient. In tech and sicience community things are not handed to you. You have to understand them yourself and be ready to help others understand it.
That was all my opinion. We can tak about it bellow.
Thank you. I never really thought about it before, but I should have. Thanks again for the enlightenment.