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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote: It just struck me
Only just?
Yes, IT is an English only discipline. And almost all IT jobs globally can be done speaking English.
I have wondered whether two programmers, of different nationality, could communicate only using programming words. 
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In one project I worked on, we evaluated one open source library which had received quite favorable reviews: We would have to extend it, and all the comments and variable/function names were in French. None of the project members mastered French, so it was completely impossible to understand what the code was intended to accomplish. We had to reject it for another alternative that turned out to be not very well suited for our use.
Even if you understand the "other" language: Switching your mind back and forth between two languages, English for the reserved/predefined words and another language for names and labels, strongly affects your speed of comprehension, in a very negative way. So I always insist on one single language: If keywords are in English, so are all names, labels etc. - and also: All comments, source file names etc.
Furthermore: There should be no non-English string literals. Or phrased somewhat differently: Since the UI should be in the language of the end user, there should be no language dependent literals in the code at all! Not even English ones. Keep all strings out of the code, use string references so that the French strings can be replaced by German strings, Swedish strings, Latin strings etc. without affecting the code. (Actually, as early as in 1983 when I was working on an office automation system that strictly followed this rule, a university professor offered to translate all the UI strings to Latin. We never offered the Latin text files to the market though - we didn't have any sales office in the Vatican...) Any code module should be 100% language-agnostic, with respect to UI. Not to forget: "UI" is more than "text on the screen", it also includes e.g. database column names, which may be visible to the user through other tools.
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The same thing happens in nudist colonies.
«... thank the gods that they have made you superior to those events which they have not placed within your own control, rendered you accountable for that only which is within you own control For what, then, have they made you responsible? For that which is alone in your own power—a right use of things as they appear.» Discourses of Epictetus Book I:12
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I rarely 5 a lounge post. This is one of those that deserve it. Interesting article.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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I agree, that was a very interesting perspective. That said, as someone who is bilingual (English and Malayalam) and who can understand 2 other languages (50% fluency), I am surprised that people find English to be hard. To me, it seems to be one of the simplest languages in the world.
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Thank you. 
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In 20th Century Britain we had a cunning policy of beating and ostracising children who insisted on using the Devil's tongue (Welsh). This was fairly successful in forcing many people to use God's Own Language (English).
Sadly, over the years (Political Correctness and all that) this entirely reasonable practice was abandoned because it was somehow deemed to be a form of child cruelty.
Let's face it, pretty well everybody in the galaxy and beyond speaks English (we know this from Star Trek and other sources) apart from a few billion Earthlings who insist on babbling away in some form of regional gibberish just to annoy the rest of us.
It's high time, to my mind, that we not only revive our old policy but broaden, clarify and expand it to a more generalised global concept of "Speak English or Die." Not only would we be sparing Johnny Foreigner endless confusion when programming, we'd also save ourselves countless hours on localisation projects that only exist to cater for those who cannot be bothered to comply with a simple request to learn to speak properly.
Sometimes you have to be a little cruel to be kind!
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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They don't call it a programming "language" for nothing! 
And in my experience, most American programmers/developers don't speak English, use proper grammar, or know how to spell, either.
And I are one!
"Newer" is NOT automatically better, only Different. (And more complex and bug ridden when it comes to all of the "boutique" languages / frameworks out there)
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Ed Aymami wrote: And in my experience, most American programmers/developers don't speak English, use proper grammar, or know how to spell, either.
Sure we do! You just have to set the compilation flag to "Southern."
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No, they all were from New England and the West Coast.
Just reading their resume's was torture! 
There's nothing wrong with grits (girls raised in the south) either.
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Ed Aymami wrote: There's nothing wrong with grits (girls raised in the south) either.
You haven't spent enough time in the South 
Bless their hearts...
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Almost all my life. I guess you forgot to "set the compilation flag to Southern" 
And I have been married to a southern girl for 45+ years so I can assure you that I understand better than you can possibly imagine.
One never know for sure, do one? -Fats Waller
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English is not my native language. (Spanish is my native), and I have been in the developer's area for more than 35 years. You are right, all the languages (at least all I know) are in English, and also the Frameworks (if they have these). I can read, write and speak English reasonably well and all my programs are written in Spanish:
if(UsuarioAutorizado)
{
AnalicePermisos(NombreUsuario, FechaAcceso);
}
We do not have any problems doing this. Usually Spanish is longer than English, but it does not represent a big difference. Of course, we developers must need to learn English (read at least) in order to write software.
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I have worked with Russian programmers for 20+ years...
Fortunately in Computer Science, English is their second language!
But, you are 100% right. We have a lot of Abbreviations, and weird ways of saying things.
I tend to use kinda/sorta which aren't words, lol. So the team is told early on to ASK about
ANYTHING they are not clear about, and that OUR RUSSIAN would be much worse than their English.
Early on, a piece of code came back with a variable: Svertka in it... It came into a code review, and it was used in a lot of places. They put the definition in the code, and moved on.
But it has led to many funny situations...
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We’re not the only industry with this problem. All civil aviation radio communication is done in English, all over the world.
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Don't worry, in Mexico we've mastered technicall English like the vocabulary used in every (old)VCR user's guide, TV warranties, and every other household appliances that come from our northern neighbors. It is just recently that the authorities ruled that all user's manuals must come with a mandatory Spannish translation and to those of us involved with technology, English is our second language.
BTW: A trilingual is a person who speaks three languages, a bilingual is a person who speaks two languages, a person who only her language is an american! (Just kidding no offense)
AND WE ARE NOT PAYING FOR THAT F(/&%KING WALL!!!
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Al Escobar wrote: AND WE ARE NOT PAYING FOR THAT F(/&%KING WALL!!!
I don't care who pays for it, as long as it gets built.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Dear Uncle Sam:
Sure, you can build any wall you want over the borderline as long as it is built OVER the surface level because we RULE the underground.
We've built many tunnels under your present wall or any future wall you are planning to build over the future (as longe as uncle Scrooge McTrump gets the funding for that from american law-obedient tax payers).
We have tunnels all over the place, heck! er even have one that ends way down Scrooge's arse!!
And are currently working on one close to your (rear) end.
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If you want to persist in posting political stuff, use the soapbox.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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not just English but American-English, which I accepted long ago, but becomes a pain when other developers decide to create classes and functions with British English when they clearly know that system libaries will be using the American spelling. Color / Colour. Basic coding, keep the format similar to the rest of the code you working with.
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My mother language is Spanish and it's very helpful when my variable names stand out in the middle of English names:
int contador = 1;
float precioFinal = 0.0m;
// cheers!!
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...and then take Excel.
All functions are translated into some localized words. I use the term words because if you do not understand the language you are stuck reading that code. And in case you can decipher function name, there is no way to find another function.
Better broken or even bad English than this nightmare.
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Now I know why the spaghetti yesterday tasted better
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