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psychothumbs@lemmy.world to Technology@beehaw.org · 2 years ago

English is a Terrible Programming Language

orbistertius.substack.com

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  • cross-posted to:
  • programming@programming.dev
  • sdfpubnix@lemmy.sdf.org
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English is a Terrible Programming Language

orbistertius.substack.com

psychothumbs@lemmy.world to Technology@beehaw.org · 2 years ago
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26
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  • cross-posted to:
  • programming@programming.dev
  • sdfpubnix@lemmy.sdf.org
And other reasons AI won't displace programmers
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  • Communist@beehaw.org
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    2 years ago

    That’s why I wish lojban would take off, although I know it never will.

    summary of lojban I posted elsewhere:

    I’m learning lojban with my girlfriend right now for many reasons, I think this language would be absolutely insanely wonderful for autistics, for a few reasons

    1. It’s syntactically unambiguous, this means every sentence only has one meaning
    2. Attitudinals, at the start of your sentence, you actually state the tone it is meant to be interpreted in (you can see how that could be massive for autistic people alone)
    3. Text has the exact same meaning as the spoken language: Y’know how in english, you have to write punctuation marks? in lojban, those are words, meaning when combined with attitudinals, the written language has feature parity with the spoken language.
    • pokexpert30@lemmy.pussthecat.org
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      2 years ago

      I’m all in for constructed languages, but when the vocabulary is so far off (worse than Esperanto!) , I get scared…

      • Communist@beehaw.org
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        2 years ago

        https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/432449642

        https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/2744730295

        I’ve been using these to help!

        • pokexpert30@lemmy.pussthecat.org
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          2 years ago

          What are those? I’m confused

          • Communist@beehaw.org
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            2 years ago

            They’re like flash cards that have the different kinds of words for lojban

            Gismu are like root words, and cmavo are like structure words.

            For a more thorough analysis of gismu and cmavo, go here:

            https://lojban.org/publications/cll/cll_v1.1_xhtml-section-chunks/section-gismu.html

            https://lojban.org/publications/cll/cll_v1.1_xhtml-section-chunks/section-cmavo.html

    • TurboTurbo@feddit.nl
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      2 years ago

      Never heard of this. Sounds interesting!

    • la .varik. .VALefor.@yiffit.net
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      1 year ago

      Removed by mod

      • Communist@beehaw.org
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        2 years ago

        I joined, thanks!

  • Suppoze@beehaw.org
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    2 years ago

    Very good article, I agree with most of the points.

    I also like to think that AI will never replace programmers, because for that to happen, the customer would have to give complete, correct and full requirements and specifications in plain, simple English - we know that almost never happens. Instead, you have to force the requirements out of them with pliers!

    • LetterboxPancake@sh.itjust.works
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      2 years ago

      That’s what I’ve been thinking. If an AI replaces me as a software engineer, I might still be needed as a translational layer. My stakeholders are a hot mess when it comes to requirements.

  • GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    That’s why I only write my code in emoji.

    • tamato@vlemmy.net
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      2 years ago
      🤔:
          (⁠ノ⁠ಠ⁠益⁠ಠ⁠)⁠ノ⁠彡⁠┻⁠━⁠┻
      👀:
          (⁠◔⁠‿⁠◔⁠)
      
  • interolivary@beehaw.org
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    2 years ago

    Sort of as an aside, but my native language is Finnish and I’ve found that I tend to code in English: in my personal projects all my names etc. are in English, but the comments in Finnish. I guess it’s partially because all the other code I interface with is in English, so it just makes more sense to use the same language for identifiers so there isn’t as much of an “impedance mismatch”

  • steph@lemmy.clueware.org
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    2 years ago

    Try French: same written word pronounced differently depending on its meaning - that might only deduced from context, differently written words pronounced the same - and having different meaning, obviously… and there’s always poetic license if you wish to muddle things a bit more!

    • janeshep@feddit.it
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      2 years ago

      to be honest those same quirks apply to English as well…

      • sukotai@beehaw.orgB
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        2 years ago

        as a french who learn english, i confirm french is just an horrible language to learn : too many rules, exception, accent… English is not perfect and could be simplified though.

        • janeshep@feddit.it
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          2 years ago

          well I’m Italian and I think we all see the flaws in our own language. Italian for example is easy to pronounce but has a crazily difficult grammar. English on the other hand has a very easy grammar but an incredibly difficult pronunciation to the point where you have to learn how each single word is pronounced (or spelled) because there are no phonetic rules. French has a bit of both, I guess.

          • sukotai@beehaw.orgB
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            2 years ago

            when you write english, you don’t need to pronounce it 😉

      • steph@lemmy.clueware.org
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        2 years ago

        Conjugaisons. Imparfait du subjonctif. 'nough said!

    • TheFrenchGhosty@lemmy.pussthecat.org
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      2 years ago

      deleted by creator

      • Bene7rddso@feddit.de
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        2 years ago

        “umfahren” is the opposite of “umfahren”

  • zazaserty@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 years ago

    Latin rules here

  • kspatlas@fedia.io
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    2 years ago

    Just code in esolangs instead

  • ShadowAether@sh.itjust.works
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    2 years ago

    Bad programming languages have never gotten in the way of us programmers

    • jws_shadotak@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      It’s not the fault of the language. I just suck at programming.

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