[Python-Dev] Translate Python language

[Paul Moore]

On 11 November 2015 at 15:13, Christophe Bal <projetmbc at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello.
>
> I'm a french teacher and I would like to use Python with young child but
> I've a big problem. All the keyword are in english. So I would like to know
> if there is a way to hack the AST tools such as to use french keywords and
> then translate a list of french keywords to their english regular version.
>
> Where should I start ? My idea is not to build a new language but simply
> translate words using an hacked version of the AST tools.
>
> Hoping to be clear and I do not pollute the message in this list.

Do you really just mean keywords? Most of the English words used in
Python (for example "open") aren't actually keywords but are names of
functions defined in the builtins and/or standard library. Those are
not exposed as distinct objects in the AST, but are simply name
lookups.

If you do mean just keywords, then you could probably relatively
simply hack the Python interpreter code to use different names for the
keywords, and build your own translated copy of Python. I don't know
the details, though. But in practice this wouldn't really help your
student, as there would still be many English words they would
encounter and need to understand (at least in the context of the code
they are writing).

My understanding is that most non-English speaking teachers tend to
accept that their students simply need to treat the keywords and
function names used in typical programming languages (Python included)
as things they just have to learn. But I suspect most students are
typically older than your young child.

Sorry I can't be more help.
Paul