[Edu-sig] teaching computer science: what language?

[kirby urner]

On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 7:58 AM, Charles Cossé <ccosse at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> I think that the Python language has always prided itself on the fact that
> it reads like clear English.  Perhaps could even say that "good Python"
> corresponds somewhat to "good English".  Just my .02 ...
> -Charles
>

I think you're right.  Python does read like clear English.

But if all your class, function and object names are in
Portuguese, then Python reads like a clear hybrid, of
English and Portuguese.

I favor keeping Standard Library in English but for
author names, as Guido does.  Beyond that, I favor
Indonesians writing their Python scripts in Indonesian
if they want to, and want no "talking down" from
fluent high horse English speakers who think
"open source" means they have an entitlement to
understand it in the English language.  If someone
does a translation maybe.   In general I don't think
English merits special privileges.

Like isn't a lot of the best CUDA stuff in Russian these
days?

http://habrahabr.ru/post/48798/

I've been using Cyrillic in my Python, in part because
the mathematics I use is interesting to Russians, more
so every day.

https://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2014-May/011026.html

Kirby



>
> On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 7:54 AM, kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> People will read my subject heading and
>> think I'm asking "what computer language?"
>> but I'm actually asking what world human
>> languages should be used to share computer
>> science -- or should they need to be in world
>> languages at all?  What's wrong with comp
>> sci in Visayan, spoken by millions in the
>> Philippines.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visayan_languages
>>
>> Some people are of the opinion that since
>> English has come so far as a world language,
>> that computer science should simply be taught
>> in English.
>>
>> That's fine for English speakers, but isn't going
>> to fly with Chinese, so we need some better
>> ideas than that.  I'd say any human language
>> is up to embracing STEM, starting from where
>> it is.  Obviously extending a human language
>> means inventing namespaces, just like we
>> do in Python.  We've been doing it for many
>> thousands of years, to keep up with our own
>> tools just for starters.
>>
>> The devil is in the details.  How should we teach
>> Python in multiple languages.  Maybe we should
>> expect more multi-lingual texts and examples
>> e.g. regular expressions with Cyrillic should be
>> as common as rain even in a book mostly in
>> English.  The point is:  if all you use in Latin-1
>> in your examples, you're hardly showing much
>> Unicode fluency.  Python teaching meets
>> LEX Institute I guess (an old theme here on
>> edu-sig).
>>
>> Here's some more on that topic:
>> http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=9769308
>> (about the overhead in memorization incurred
>> by having to learn a whole other vocabulary).
>>
>> As I posted earlier this month, I think hospitals
>> are under the gun to at least get patient names
>> in their native script on computer monitors.
>>
>> That brings up issues of collation / alphabetization
>> across languages.
>>
>> I ask basic questions about that here:
>>
>> https://mail.python.org/pipermail/i18n-sig/2015-May/002131.html
>>
>> Insights / feedback / comments welcome.
>>
>> Kirby
>>
>>
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