Re: Natural "for" Loop, using Plural / Singular transformations ??

On 6/3/2006 3:52 PM, Karsten Nyblad wrote:
> olivier.chatelain@gmail.com wrote:
>> Dear Compiler Cracks,
>>
>> What about using Plural => Singular transformations to generate loop
>> variables from name of lists?
>>
>> EXAMPLE:
>>
>> FOR dependency IN dependencies DO
>> PRINT dependency.name
>> END


[snip]


> When writing business applications for use in none English speaking
> languages, it is common to let the identifiers be in the local
> language, but few languages derive plural from singular the way it is
> done in English.


And some languages don't have plural forms at all (Chinese, Japanese);
some have special dual forms (Lithuanian). Some don't have articles
(Russian), so idioms like "for theDependency in dependencies ..."
don't translate well. Some insist on conjugating the verb according to
the gender of the subject. Etc., etc.


In designing programming languages, it's useful to have at least a
passing acquaintance with a few other languages, preferably from another
language family than your native language. Here's a description of Perl,
as invented by a Latin-speaker:
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~damian/papers/HTML/Perligata.html
                  meo varo haec da. # my $var = @_;
                  meis varo haec da. # my ($var) = @_
                  meis varis haec da. # my @var = @_;


And, of course, there's the classic (still controversial):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis


- peter ludemann

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