Click here to Skip to main content
15,886,776 members

Welcome to the Lounge

   

For discussing anything related to a software developer's life but is not for programming questions. Got a programming question?

The Lounge is rated Safe For Work. If you're about to post something inappropriate for a shared office environment, then don't post it. No ads, no abuse, and no programming questions. Trolling, (political, climate, religious or whatever) will result in your account being removed.

 
GeneralRe: Hmm ... Pin
trønderen30-Jan-23 20:22
trønderen30-Jan-23 20:22 
GeneralRe: Hmm ... Pin
jmaida31-Jan-23 12:43
jmaida31-Jan-23 12:43 
GeneralRe: Hmm ... Pin
jmaida31-Jan-23 12:49
jmaida31-Jan-23 12:49 
GeneralRe: Hmm ... Pin
OriginalGriff30-Jan-23 19:42
mveOriginalGriff30-Jan-23 19:42 
GeneralRe: Hmm ... Pin
pkfox30-Jan-23 21:08
professionalpkfox30-Jan-23 21:08 
GeneralRe: Hmm ... Pin
Amarnath S30-Jan-23 23:30
professionalAmarnath S30-Jan-23 23:30 
GeneralRe: Hmm ... Pin
peterkmx31-Jan-23 2:06
professionalpeterkmx31-Jan-23 2:06 
GeneralChinese software Pin
trønderen30-Jan-23 11:10
trønderen30-Jan-23 11:10 
Just a random thought:
No doubt we are at a trading war with China ("which we call Red China ..."). We try to curb their technological development by refusing to sell various high-tech components, limiting Chinese students / researchers / ... access to 'sensitive' software etc. It is too late. Years ago, they reached a level where they no way are 'dependent' on Western technology. When we close the door, they certainly can respond with a shrug and go back to their offices and workshops and develop something equally good, or better.

If they do, they could protect their software (and similar intellectual property) from theft by Western spies in a simple way: If they develop new programming languages expressed in Chinese script, the source code will make no sense to 99,9% of all Western software developers. We could try to translate the ideograms one by one, like we can translate spoken languages word by word: The result may be close to gibberish. Like trying to translate Lisp or APL to C++ - I wouldn't like to take the responsibility for maintaining that code base.

We cannot take for granted that a Chinese language is based on concepts similar to Western ones. E.g.: What we consider 'truth', in a very positive sense, is better the less it is subject to discussion, the more absolute and unambiguous it is. I was told that in Chinese culture, this is a 'simple truth', a primitive thing. A deep truth is one that can be understood in different ways. The more meanings you can give to a truth, the deeper and more valuable it is. A programming language with elements of such concepts may be very difficult to transform to C++.

Some of us remember Prolog, the predicate language: You develop your solution starting out without any restrictions at all, adding restrictions (predicates) one by one: The sum of X and Y must be 10. X and Y are yet unrestricted. You restrict them by requiring that the product of X and Y must be 24. Still, it holds true for several values. Your add another predicate: X > Y. The Prolog interpreter says: True - in the sense: I have identified a simple truth, that holds, assuming that X is 6 and Y is 4. Up until that point, you worked with a truth containing many possiblities.

I think this solution method bears some resemblance to the simple and deep truth way of thinking. Certainly: Prolog was pushed by Japanese researchers, but their culture has stronger ties to Chinese culture than we might be aware of. 40 years ago, when Prolog was heavily pushed, China was at a stage of development where it could not follow up, or take the initiative, the way it may be capable of today.

Most Chinese software developers have at least some mastery of English; the keywords of a programming language are not completely Greek to them. They can draw on our software solutions. While there are people in the Western world learning Chinese ("und I'm learning Chinese, says Werner von Braun"), not many of them are software developers.

If China in five to ten years, say, builds the world's strongest software industry, demanding (as an element in the trade war) that all electronics manufactured in China shall be programmed in languages expressed in Chinese script, with documentation in Chinese ... Maybe you can create fully 'Western style' end user apps, but the APIs are in Chinese. The only way to follow up, to maintain the products, to steal even open-source software, would be to learn Chinese language, concepts, cultural idioms and similar elements.

Would you do that - learn what you need to know to handle software driven electronics manufactured in China? Or will you say 'Being a plain end user of Chinese products is good enough for me'? Is is OK to close off a market of 1500 million consumers, because Chinese consumer authorities demand that anything sold in China shall have both user and maintenance documentation in Chinese, and be maintainable in China, i.e. software produced in a language and with tools compatible with Chinese standards?

I can imagine that China could do something like that. Even if we try to hang onto it, the IT industry of the West would nevertheless be turned into a software banana republic. Like the West has been telling the rest of the world: Just change your ways and your society into something like us, and you will succeed!, we will be told: Just change your software development ways into something like our way, and you will succeed!

I am certainly not saying that this will happen, just that it might happen. We should not underestimate the risk.
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
Gerry Schmitz30-Jan-23 12:10
mveGerry Schmitz30-Jan-23 12:10 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
trønderen30-Jan-23 15:20
trønderen30-Jan-23 15:20 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
David O'Neil30-Jan-23 12:53
professionalDavid O'Neil30-Jan-23 12:53 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
trønderen30-Jan-23 15:32
trønderen30-Jan-23 15:32 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
jmaida30-Jan-23 16:53
jmaida30-Jan-23 16:53 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
David O'Neil30-Jan-23 17:06
professionalDavid O'Neil30-Jan-23 17:06 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
jmaida30-Jan-23 17:48
jmaida30-Jan-23 17:48 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
trønderen30-Jan-23 20:18
trønderen30-Jan-23 20:18 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
David O'Neil31-Jan-23 3:32
professionalDavid O'Neil31-Jan-23 3:32 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
trønderen31-Jan-23 14:22
trønderen31-Jan-23 14:22 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
David O'Neil31-Jan-23 14:42
professionalDavid O'Neil31-Jan-23 14:42 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
Southmountain30-Jan-23 18:06
Southmountain30-Jan-23 18:06 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
Single Step Debugger31-Jan-23 3:26
Single Step Debugger31-Jan-23 3:26 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
trønderen31-Jan-23 14:02
trønderen31-Jan-23 14:02 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
Paul Kemner31-Jan-23 4:26
Paul Kemner31-Jan-23 4:26 
GeneralRe: Chinese software Pin
jschell2-Feb-23 8:50
jschell2-Feb-23 8:50 
QuestionI hope this isn't a programming question... (C++ Modules) Pin
Jeremy Falcon30-Jan-23 6:47
professionalJeremy Falcon30-Jan-23 6:47 

General General    News News    Suggestion Suggestion    Question Question    Bug Bug    Answer Answer    Joke Joke    Praise Praise    Rant Rant    Admin Admin   

Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch messages, Ctrl+Up/Down to switch threads, Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to switch pages.