Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ctrsol!IDA.ORG!rwex From: rwex@IDA.ORG (Richard Wexelblat) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Question on programming languages Message-ID: <1989Sep26.114433.515@IDA.ORG> Date: 26 Sep 89 11:44:33 GMT References: <8720001@hplsla.HP.COM> <89267.181118UH2@PSUVM.BITNET> <5219@eos.UUCP> Reply-To: rwex@IDA.ORG.UUCP (Richard Wexelblat) Organization: IDA, Alexandria, VA Lines: 25 In article <5219@eos.UUCP> eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya) writes: >I've seen lots of code in other natural languages. > In a very early SIGPLAN Notices there were some examples of Japanese COBOL programs -- all of the keywords in English, all variables on Romanji Japanese. The first ALGOL compiler I used was implemented at the U. of Grenoble. All "regular" keywords in English but all I/O statements in French (lire & ecrire, etc.) A long while ago there were some publications relating to the impossibility of translating the LOGO programming language into a romance language without seriously changing its structure. (A basic aspect of Logo is that the infinitive form of an English verb -- used to define a function/procedure (TO DRAW, e.g.) -- is lexically identical with the imperative form -- used to invoke the function (DRAW, e.g.). Try doing that in French.) -- --Dick Wexelblat |I must create a System or be enslav'd by another Man's; | (rwex@ida.org) |I will not Reason and Compare: my business is to Create.| 703 824 5511 | -Blake, Jerusalem |