[beginner] What's wrong?

[Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn]

Marko Rauhamaa wrote:

> Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info>:
>> So you're saying that learning to be a fluent speaker of English is a
>> pre-requisite of being a programmer?
> 
> No more than learning Latin is a prerequisite of being a doctor.

Full ACK.  Probably starting with the Industrial Revolution enabled by the 
improvements of the steam machine in England, English has become the /lingua 
franca/ of technology (even though the French often still disagree, 
preferring words like « ordinateur » and « octet » over “computer” and 
“byte”, respectively¹).  (With the Internet at the latest, then, it has also 
become the /lingua franca/ of science, although Latin terms are common in 
medicine.)
 
> Nowadays software companies and communities are international. You never
> know who needs to maintain your code. At work, I need to maintain code
> that was created in Japan, with coworkers from all over the world. The
> Japanese author had had a hard time with English, and made some
> awkward naming choices, but had the common sense to use English-only
> names in his code.

One will have a hard time finding a company or community, international or 
not, that does not have at least a basic knowledge of English included in 
what they require of a software developer.

____________
¹  Years ago, I was helping a French colleague with her computer, and
   was surprised to read “Mo” instead of “MB” in the status bar of
   Windows Explorer.
-- 
PointedEars

Twitter: @PointedEars2
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