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From: root@neon.UUCP (Thomas Ziemer)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Non-English speaking programming
Keywords: European, Asian programming languages
Message-ID: <932@neon.UUCP>
Date: 5 Feb 90 11:14:09 GMT
References: <4977@drutx.ATT.COM>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Neon Research Caboose (tm)
Lines: 36

mcp@drutx.ATT.COM (Mike Paugh) writes:

> The question: In non-English speaking countries is it necessary for
> programmers to learn English to write in languages such as Pascal, 
> COBOL, FORTRAN, etc.?

Hello Mike !

No, I think it's not necessary, because you only have a limited
number of words. These words you have to associate with a special
meaning (in your programming language) like  'write("xxx");'  or
'printf("xxx");'  with 'printing something onto your screen'.
You mustn't know the mean of any of these words in the english
language. My opinion is, it's not bad, if you *would* learn the
english meaning of the words, but it's not necessary...


> Are there versions of these languages in Spanish, French, German,
> Japanese...? If not, what are the favored languages in non-English
> speaking countries?

No, it doesn't exist any german versions of Pascal, Fortran...
So, we must take, what you give us  ;-)  No, I think, it's very
difficult to translate a given programming language in another
language, because you often loose the existing semantic between
the programming command and the original word (this is an argument
for learning english !). Several tries were made to translate
programming languages to german but only with amusing results.

Greetings ... thomas
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