English-like Python

[Erik Max Francis]

Tobias Andersson wrote:
> The Music Guy skrev:
>> Just out of curiousity, have there been any attempts to make a version
>> of Python that looks like actual English text? I mean, so much of Python
>> is already based on the English language that it seems like the next
>> natural step would be to make a programming language which is actually a
>> spoken one.
> 
> Take a look at Inform 7. It's not Python but does something similar to 
> what you are describing:
> 
>     www.inform-fiction.org
> 
> Check out the examples in the tutorial. Some of them are quite elegant.

I was thinking of this as well when I saw his post.  Inform 7 has some 
interesting ideas, but I think the general problem with English-like 
programming language systems is that once you get into the nitty gritty 
details, you end up having to know exactly the right things to type, 
which ultimately get just as complicated as a more traditional 
programming language syntax.  In the big picture I don't think it helps 
much.  After all, there's a reason that most modern programming 
languages don't look like COBOL or AppleScript.

-- 
Erik Max Francis && max at alcyone.com && http://www.alcyone.com/max/
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