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Mutual intelligibility of computer languages? | ||
Tags: Computer | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| laban Triglot Groupie Israel Joined 5824 days ago 87 posts - 96 votes  Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English, Italian Studies: Norwegian, German | Message 1 of 20 29 December 2009 at 5:02am | IP Logged | ||
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Is there such thing as intelligibility between different computer languages?
and if so, which is the most intelligible? Edited by laban on 29 December 2009 at 5:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Principiante Senior Member United States lucasgentry.com Joined 6260 days ago 130 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 20 29 December 2009 at 7:48am | IP Logged | ||
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I guess I don't understand the question.
It seems as though, like natural languages, whether or not one would be intelligible would be based on what other languages you already know. VBA, for instance, (the scripting language used in Excel macros) is very mutually-intelligible with BASIC, as they've got many similar commands and constructs, while C is quite a bit different. There are a lot of consistancies between all or almost all computer languages, though, so most seasoned programmers will be able to follow most higher-level code, even with languages they've never used before. At least to some extent. Maybe I misunderstood the question. I know it's not typically a forum to discuss such things, so I probably did. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hcholm Heptaglot Groupie Norway Joined 6063 days ago 43 posts - 65 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Swedish, Danish, German, French, Polish Studies: Czech | Message 3 of 20 30 December 2009 at 12:28am | IP Logged | ||
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The situation is pretty much the same as with natural languages. Some languages are very
similar (C/C++/C#/Java), some look different on the surface but are similar at a "deeper" level (C#/Visual Basic/Pascal), some may look similar at first glance but are different at a deeper level (Java/JavaScript), and some may be very different in most respects but still share important basic properties (C#/ML/Perl/Lisp). Computer langugages also develop, forming groups and families. "Intelligibility" between computer languages is like intelligibility between natural languages. It depends on the user's experience and how closely related the languages are. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 5 of 20 30 December 2009 at 10:02am | IP Logged | ||
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I definitely think some languages are more intelligible than others. If I look at Perl code I wrote 6 months ago I can barely make it out at first. Perl is such a mess. The most intelligible language imo, is Python. When I first had to deal with Python code I could understand huge chunks of it without ever seeing the language before.
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| minus273 Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5767 days ago 288 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Ancient Greek, Tibetan | Message 6 of 20 30 December 2009 at 1:29pm | IP Logged | ||
The most intelligible language imo, is Inform 7, when you write code like this: The Flat is a room. "A small [one of]but cozy[or]depressing[or]imprisoning[by atmosphere] flat. Outside the window, the sun is [one of][or][or]apparently [by atmosphere]shining and there is a brisk breeze through the leaves of the birch trees. [one of]It would be quite nice weather for a walk[or]The rest of the world apparently has no appreciation of what you suffer[or]It all looks deceptively normal[by atmosphere]." Instead of waiting when the current atmosphere is normal: say "Everything stretches wide and flat for just a moment, as though all the world around you were painted on a thin rubber sheet that is being [italic type]stretched[roman type]. Then it snaps back into place, leaving your ears ringing. But that little glitch was enough to warn you. Someone is tampering with space-time again. Someone very close by."; now the current atmosphere is creepy. Test me with "look / z / look". A little too verbose, maybe, but definitely learner-friendly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5497 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 7 of 20 30 December 2009 at 1:32pm | IP Logged | ||
I think what was meant was mutual intelligibility, like how if you know Spanish then you can understand ~80% of Portuguese. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sonsenfrancais Groupie United Kingdom sonsenfrancais. Joined 5981 days ago 75 posts - 85 votes Speaks: FrenchC2 | Message 8 of 20 30 December 2009 at 3:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's interesting that there should even be a discussion on computer languages here. A human language is intended to allow human beings to communicate. You write a computer language to give a list of instructions to the processor. If you try to make the language inherently intelligible to human beings you end up with languages like good ol' COBOL, and your fingers ache with typing. The other end of the scale is C - which compiles nicely into machine code but is a headache to read.
The answer, I reckon, is to use the most appropriate/efficient language on the machine level - but structure it nicely and include lots of helpful comments for the benefit of the next programmer who has to pick up the code. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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