Python, Dutch, English, Chinese, Japanese, etc.

[Ross Ridge]

Steve Howell  <showell30 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>I'm wondering if all the English keywords in Python
>would present too high a barrier for most Chinese
>people--def, if, while, for, sys, os, etc.  So you
>might need to go even further than simply allowing
>identifiers to be written in Simplified-Chinese.

Translating keywords and standard identifiers into Chinese could make
learning Python even more difficult.  It would probably make things
easier for new programmers, but I don't know if serious programmers would
actually prefer programming using Chinese keywords.  It would make their
Python implementations incompatible with the standard implementation, they
wouldn't be able to use third-party modules and their own code wouldn't
be portable.  If novice Chinese programmers would have to unlearn much
of they've learned in order to become serious Python programmers are
you really doing them a favour by teaching them Chinese Python?

It would really only work if Chinese Python became it own successful
dialect of Python, independent of the standard Python implementation.
Chinese Python programmers would be isolated from other Python
programmers, each with their own set of third-party modules and little
code sharing between the two groups.  I don't think this would be good
for Python as whole.

					Ross Ridge

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