• From: Chin Chee-Kai <cheekai@s...>
• To: Rick Jelliffe <rjelliffe@a...>
• Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:37:01 +0800

Interesting idea there.  If it is successful, it might open up a new 
chapter for programming.

While it is probably "obvious" that writing variables and function names 
in Chinese is "obviously" not workable with present ways of representing 
source code, we should remember that variables and functions are 
basically abstract objects which form the elements used in the logic of 
the programs.  That their appearances in almost all present-day 
programming languages are integrally tied to their English-spelling 
tokens could still be made historical if a new "pure logic" form of 
representing these abstract structures could be constructed, and keeping 
the "names" of variables and functions  as multiple multilingual 
descriptions.

Could XML-based representation be possible (just thinking aloud)?  It 
seems to have already the capability to "hang" multiple multilingual 
descriptions off logical DOM nodes...  Rick, how'bout a trial XML-C 
programming language?

regards,
Chin Chee-Kai


Rick Jelliffe wrote:
> Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.   But source code that use variable 
> and function names in, say, Chinese, is obviously not workable.
>
> I have been told that Apache has an emphasis on "Open Development",  
> meaning that anyone competent and motivated should be able to 
> contribute, which suggests that English should be used.  But if the 
> original group is not comfortable with English, they may not be 
> inclined to participate.  So "opening up" might be the kiss of death, 
> if it alienates the original group. There is a lot of code out there 
> that never makes it into the English-centric FOSS world, to our loss. 
> It's not a question about liberalism, but about how to make an 
> environment that my friends could thrive in.
>
> Cheers
> Rick Jelliffe

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Transformation of RelaxNG syntax into presentationof required markup
    • From: Rick Jelliffe <rjelliffe@a...>

• References:
  • Re: Transformation of RelaxNG syntax into presentation ofrequired markup
    • From: Richard Salz <rsalz@u...>
  • Re: Transformation of RelaxNG syntax into presentationof required markup
    • From: Rick Jelliffe <rjelliffe@a...>