Re: localized languages, was call by name

On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 4:39 AM, glen herrmannsfeldt
<gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
> Not to mention keywords.
>
> I have wondered about what non-english speakers think about the
> english keywords used in the usual programming languages.


In the late 80s in Soviet Union they decided to "informatizationize"
the country. One of the elements of this plan was to introduce
computer education to schools. The problem was that soviet schools had
no computers whatsoever and the state was unable to provide them
quickly.


The solution was to teach computers with a textbook, paper, and
pencil. The first textbook they printed for schools featured a
language with Russian keywords.


It was called RAYa language. They pretended that RAYa stands for
Russkiy Algoritmicheskiy Yazyk (Russian Algorithmic Language).


And Russian children (me among them) learned to program writing
programs in this language on paper. I don't think this language has
ever been really implemented.


I barely learned anything from this "computer" course. The strange
name of the language is almost the only thing I remember.


I couple of years later in the university when I started to really
learn something about computers I became aware about the buzz that was
approximately at that time about the Ada programming language. Only
then I realized that it was a pun of somebody with enough knowledge
and influence. Ershov perhaps. I don't think that officials from the
education department would welcome this pun if they understood what it
was.


The thing is that "programming language Ada" sounds in Russian like
"programming language of hell" (yazyk programmirovaniya Ada). And
"programming language RAYa" sounds like "programming language of
heaven". Also "Raya" sounds like a Russian female name. So the one
who made the joke made it really well.


Regards,
Aleksey

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